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CHILDREN'S STORIES 



AMERICAN HISTORY 




A MA MM IT II HUNT. 



CHILDREN'S Stories 



IN 



American History 



BY 

Henrietta Christian Wright 



Illustrated by J. Steeple Davis 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1885 



•uh5 



Copyright, 1885, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



TROW'8 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDINQ COMPANV, 

NEW YORK. 



(,9^ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Ancient America, i 

CHAPTER H. 
The Mound-Builders, 5 

CHAPTER HI. 
The Red Men, 14 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Northmen, 27 

CHAPTER V. 
Columbus and the Discovery of America, , . 38 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Cabots, ' . 61 

CHAPTER VII. 
Amkiicus Vespucius, 65 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Ponce de Leon, 71 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. PAGE 

Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the Discoverer of the 

Pacific Ocean, 76 

CHAPTER X. 
Cabeca de Vaca, 85 

CHAPTER XI. 
Hernando Cortez and the Conquest of Mexico, . 103 

CHAPTER XII. 

Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru, . . .114 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Ferdinand de Soto, the Discoverer of the Missis- 
sippi, 172 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Verrazano, 199 

CHAPTER XV. 
Jacques Cartier, 210 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Huguenots, 228 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Sir Walter Raleigh, 254 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER XVIII. PAGE 

The Story of Pocahontas, the Indian Princess, . 259 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Settlement of Maine, and Discovery of Lake 

Champlain, 269 

CHAPTER XX. 
Henry Hudson and the Knickerbockers, . . 292 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Pilgrims and the Settlement of New Eng- 
land, 300 

CHAPTER XXII. 
La Salle, 316 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Story of Acadia, 331 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Story of Pontiac, 337 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The Revolution, 348 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



A Mammoth Hunt, Frontispiece. 

FACING PAGE 

The Teaching of an Indian Child, . . . .14 

Young Columbus, 38 

Vespucius Landing to Chastise the Cannibals, . 65 
Balboa in Search of the Unknown Sea, . . 79 

The Messengers of Montezuma, . . . .103 

De Soto, 172 

Jacques Cartier finds Newfoundland Inhospi- 
table, 210 

Smith Saved by Pocahontas, 259 

The Half-Moon in the Hudson, .... 292 
The Driving out of the Acadians, . . . .331 
The Story of Pontiac's Plot, 337 



CHAPTER I. 

ANCIENT AMERICA. 

Many ao-es aeo in North America there was 
no spring or summer or autumn, but only winter 
all the time ; there were no forests or fields or 
flowers, but only ice and snow, which stretched 
from the Arctic Ocean to Maryland. Some- 
times the climate would grow a little warmer, 
and then the great glaciers would shrink toward 
the north, and then again it would grow cold, 
while the ice crept southward ; but finally it be- 
came warmer and warmer until all the southern 
part of the country was quite free from the ice 
and snow, which could then only be seen, as it 
is now, in the Polar regions. 

Apfes and ag-es after this, grass and trees be- 
gan to appear, and at last great forests covered 
the land, and over the fields and through the 
woods gigantic animals roved — strange and 
terrible-looking beasts, larger than any animal 



ANCIENT AMERICA. 



now living, and very fierce and strong. Among 
these were the mammoth and mastodon, which 
were so strong and ferocious that it would take 
hundreds of men to hunt and kill them. These 
great animals would go trampling through the 
forests, breaking down the trees and crushing 
the grass and flowers under their feet, or rush 
over the fields in pursuit of their prey, making 
such dreadful, threatening noises that all the 
other animals would flee before them, just as 
now the more timid animals flee from the lion 
or rhinoceros. Sometimes they would rush or 
be driven by men into swamps and marshes, 
where their great weight would sink them 
down so deep into the mud that they could not 
lift themselves out again, and then, they would 
die of starvation or be killed by the arrows of 
the men who were hunting them. 

Besides these mammoths and mastodons 
there were other animals living in North Amer- 
ica at that time, very different from those that 
are found here now. 

These were the rhinoceros, as large as the 
elephant of to-day, five different kinds of camels, 



ANCIENT AMERICA. 



thirty different kinds of horses, some of which 
had three toes, and some four, on each foot ; 
and then there were a great many smaller ani- 
mals which we no longer find here. Monkeys 
swung in the branches of the trees, just as they 
do now in other parts of the world, and great, 
strange birds went flying through the air and 
built their nests in the trees which, ages ago, 
crumbled away to dust. 

But at last all these curious animals vanished 
from the forests of North America — all, that is, 
except the reindeer, which is still found in the 
far north — and the only reason we have for 
knowing that they really lived here is that their 
bones have been found in the soil. 

Among mountains far from the sea are often 
found the shells of sea-animals, and the imprints 
of fishes in the rocks, and so we know those 
animals must once have lived there, and in the 
same way when the bones of the mammoth and 
mastodon, and camel and rhinoceros, are found, 
we also know that they must have lived here 
too, although it was so long ago that nobody 
knows very much about it. 



ANCIENT AMERICA. 



Among these bones have been found human 
bones also, and tools, and arrow-heads of flint ; 
so it is supposed that there was a race of peo- 
ple living in North America at the same time. 
But who these people were, or where they came 
from, or whither they went, we shall probably 
never know, for they have vanished as utterly 
from the New World as have the fairies and 
nymphs and giants from the Old World, and will 
always remain a mystery. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 

About two thousand years ago there lived a 
very curious people in North America known as 
the Mound-builders. Where they came from 
no one knows, but it is supposed that they were 
either descendants of people from Japan, who 
had been driven across the Pacific by storms, 
and washed on the western coast of America, or 
that they originally came from Asia by the way 
of Behring Strait. Many people suppose them 
to have been the descendants of the Shepherd 
Kings, who journeyed from Central India to 
Egypt about the time of the building of the 
Tower of Babel ; they were called the Shepherd 
Kings because they were shepherds, and came 
down into Egypt driving their flocks before 
them. Here they conquered the country and 
made themselves kings ; they built many won- 
derful temples, and founded Hehopolis, the City 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 



of the Sun, in honor to their great god, the 
Sun, whom they worshipped, under the name of 
Osiris ; Isis, the moon, being their chief god- 
dess. It was supposed that Osiris dwelt in the 
body of the sacred bull Apis, and therefore this 
bull was adored as a god. He lived in a splen- 
did temple, the walls of which shone with gold 
and silver, and sparkled with gems and precious 
stones brought from India and Ethiopia ; it was 
the duty of the priests to wait upon him with 
the greatest care, and he was always fed from 
golden dishes. At the time of the rising of the 
Nile there was always a festival to Apis, when 
he was displayed to the people covered with 
the richest and finest embroidered cloths, and 
surrounded by troops of boys singing songs 
to him. If he lived twenty-five years he was 
drowned in a sacred fountain, but if he died be- 
fore that time all Egypt went into mourning, 
which continued until a new Apis was found. 
The successor must be a perfectly black ' calf, 
with a square white spot on the forehead, the 
figure of an eagle upon the back, a crescent on 
the side, and a beetle on the tongue.' Of course 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 



these marks were made by the priests, but the 
people did not know that, and supposed that the 
soul of Apis had passed into this calf, which 
they received with great joy. 

The Egyptians worshipped many other ani- 
mals besides the sacred bull; the dog, wolf, 
hawk, crocodile, and cat were all considered 
gods, and any one who might kill one of these ani- 
mals, even by accident, was punished with death. 
When a cat died every one in the family cut off 
his eyebrows, and when a dog died the whole 
head was shaven. And if on their journeys the 
Egyptians found the dead body of a cat or dog, 
they always brought it home and embalmed it 
with great care. The reason why the Egyp- 
tians reverenced these animals was, that they 
believed that the soul of man, after his death, 
passed into the bodies of different animals, and 
that after three thousand years it would return 
and inhabit a human form again, so, of course, 
they did not look upon a cat or dog as we do, 
merely as an animal to be petted or used, but 
they thought that in this animal dwelt the soul of 
some human beino-, and hence it was sacred to 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 



them. One of the great gods of Egypt was 
the River Nile ; and no wonder that they wor- 
shipped it, as it was to them the means of Hfe. 
It never rains in Egypt, and the land would be 
like a desert were it not for the overflowing of 
the Nile. Once a year this great river, swollen 
by the waters that have poured into it from the 
lake country above, overflows its banks, water- 
ing the country on either side of it, and leaving, 
when it recedes, a deposit of rich mud upon the 
land; then the people sow and plant, sure of a 
good harvest. Up and down the Nile Valley 
extends a chain of rocky mountains, and these 
the Egyptians used as places of burial. The 
tombs, or catacombs, as they are called, are 
ornamented with pictures and sculptures which 
may be seen to this day. The subjects of 
these paintings were always taken from life. 
People were represented planting, sowing, and 
reaping, spinning, weaving, sewing, washing, 
dressing, and playing. Even the games of chil- 
dren were shown in these tombs, and the balls 
and dolls and toys with which they played. 
Would you not feel strange to stand in one 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 



of these catacombs and see the figure of a doll 
carved in the rock, and to know that it is the 
tomb of some little Egyptian girl who died 
three thousand years ago ? The games which 
children play to-day are not new, and when 
you have a game of ball or top or leap-frog, 
when you play with your dolls, or sit down and 
tell each other fairy stories, you are only do- 
ing the same thing that the little Egyptian and 
Grecian boys and girls did thousands of years 
ago ; it makes them seem like real children to 
think that, doesn't it ? 

But different as the Egyptian religion was 
from ours, there was one thing which they be- 
lieved which we also believe in, the resurrection 
of the dead ; and as to-day we symbolize this 
belief by pictures of the lily, the egg, the butter- 
fly, and other objects, so the Egyptians used 
the lotus, which bloomed on the waves of the 
Nile, opening every morning and closing every 
night, as the symbol of the resurrection, and we 
find this flower, carved in stone, used as an 
ornament all throughout Egypt. 

Of all the works of the ancient Egyptians, 



10 THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 

the greatest are the pyramids, the tombs of the 
kings ; these were mostly built during the reigns 
of the Shepherd Kings. 

After a long time, perhaps five or six hun- 
dred years, the ancient inhabitants of Egypt 
drove out the Shepherd Kings. It is supposed 
then that they crossed back to Asia, wandering 
through that country from the south to the 
north, spending some time in Siberia, where 
they built mounds like those in our own coun- 
try, then crossing Behring Strait they reached 
North America, wandered down the Mississippi 
Valley, building mounds and temples, journeyed 
through Mexico, where are found some of the 
most remarkable of these remains, and so on 
across the Isthmus of Panama into Peru, where 
at the time of the conquest of that country by 
the Spaniards the sun and moon were wor- 
shipped as gods, just as had been done in Egypt 
thousands of years before, and where was found 
a magnificent temple of the sun, the inside walls 
of which were covered almost entirely of gold. 
So you see the reason why it is thought that 
perhaps the mound-builders were descendants 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. II 

of the Shepherd Kings is that these mounds and 
temples are Hke those found in the old world. 
In Mexico and Peru all the great buildings were 
made in the pyramidal form, while, as I have 
said, in Siberia have been found mounds like 
those in the United States. 

Some of the most curious of these mounds 
are found in the State of Ohio. One, in the 
form of a serpent, with the tail ending in a triple 
coil, is very curious. It is about a thousand feet 
lonof and extends alono- a bluff which rises above 
Brush Creek, in Adams County, Ohio. The 
neck of the serpent is stretched out and slightly 
curved over, and in its mouth is another mound 
in the form of an egg. 

Many of these mounds, from their shapes, it 
is thought, were used for fortifications, and some- 
times they are at regular spaces apart, which 
shows they may have been used for sending 
signals across the country. They were made 
almost entirely of earth, but sometimes brick 
and stone were used. Sometimes they were 
built very high, and on the tops of these high- 
est mounds have been found pieces of burned 



12 THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 

wood, showing that they were probably used as 
places of worship, and that the priests offered 
up burnt-offerings and sacrifices there. The 
mounds are sometimes in the form of animals 
and men. In those that were used as places of 
worship human bones have been found, and 
with them many things which show that the 
Mound-builders must have known some of the 
arts which the tribes who lived in America at 
the time of its discovery by the Europeans knew 
nothing of; among these things are carvings 
in stone, pottery, articles of ornament in metal, 
silver and copper tools, such as axes, chisels, 
and knives, beside beads, bracelets, carved pipes, 
models in clay of birds, quadrupeds, and human 
faces, etc. 

Is it not strange to think of this race of peo- 
ple who lived here in our own America so many 
years ago ? We would like to know how they 
lived, what they looked like, and what language 
they spoke, but we cannot even guess. We 
only know that ages after the time of the Mam- 
moth and Mastodon, this curious race, coming 
doubtless from the East, entered the Mississippi 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 1 3 

Valley; that they settled there and built those 
wonderful mounds at least two thousand years 
ago, if not longer ; that finally they disappeared, 
and we should never have known of them but 
for the works they have left. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE RED MEN. 

When America was first discovered by the 
whites, all the country along the Atlantic coast 
fi'om Maine to Florida was peopled by a dark- 
skinned people different from any known to 
Europeans. They were tall, with black or ha- 
zel eyes, and straight, black hair. Some of 
them were mild and friendly toward the whites, 
but others were very warlike and hated the 
white men for coming to live in their own wood- 
land homes. They never lived very long in one 
place, but roamed about here and there, living 
'by hunting, fishing, and sometimes planting 
corn, beans, pumpkins, etc. Their houses, or 
wigwams, as they called them, were made of 
bark, or skins, or matting, stretched on poles 
driven in the ground, and an Indian village was 
simply a great many tents in one spot, in the 
largest of which the chief always lived. These 




THE TEACHING OF AN INDIAN CHILD. 



THE RED MEN. 1 5 



little villages were nothing like those which you 
would see now, scattered up and down the At- 
lantic coast, where all kinds of people live to- 
gether ; but each village was the home of one 
particular family or tribe of Indians, and it was 
very much as if you and all your brothers and 
sisters, your uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, 
nieces, grandmothers, grandfathers, great-grand- 
mothers, great-grandfathers, and everybody else 
who was the least bit in the world relation to 
you, lived altogether in one little town by your- 
selves. Each tribe took some animal for its 
symbol, or totem, as they called it, such as the 
turtle, bear, or wolf, and they believed that the 
spirit of the animal chosen watched over them 
and protected them. Like the ancient Egyp- 
tians, they believed that the soul of man passed 
at his death into the body of some other man 
or of some animal, and they drew signs from the 
flight of the birds and the shapes of the clouds. 
They worshipped the sun, which they said was 
the symbol of the Great Spirit, and they be- 
lieved that the moon could weave charms. They 
believed also that the wind and the stars, the 



l6 THE RED MEN. 



Streams and the lakes, the great trees and the 
beautiful flowers, all had spirits. And little Indian 
boys and girls never went to school as you do, 
to learn about history and geography, but their 
school was out in the shady woods at their 
mother's feet, where they sat and listened to the 
beautiful stories of Hiawatha, the son of the 
West Wind, who had been sent among them to 
clear their rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, 
and to teach them the arts of peace ; of his 
wife, Minnehaha, Laughing Water, who sat by 
the doorway of her wigwam, plaiting mats of 
flags and rushes when Hiawatha came to woo 
her ; of Minnehaha's father, the old arrow- 
maker, who made arrow-heads of jasper and 
chalcedony, and of the brave, beautiful, and 
gentle Chibiabos, the best of all musicians, who 
sang so sweetly that all the warriors and wom- 
en and children crept at his feet to listen, and 
who made from hollow reeds flutes so mellow 
and musical that at the sound the brook ceased 
to murmur in the woodland, the birds stopped 
singing, the squirrel ceased chattering, and the 
rabbit sat up to listen. And the bluebird and 



THE RED MEN. 1/ 



robin and whippoorwill begged Chibiabos that 
he would teach them to sing as sweetly, but 
he could not, for he sang of the things they 
could not understand, of peace and love and 
freedom and undying life in the Islands of the 
Blessed. 

And then, too, the Indian mothers would 
tell their children the story of Wabun, the East 
Wind, who brought the morning to the earth, 
and chased away the darkness with his silver 
arrows, whose cheeks were crimson with the 
sunrise, and whose voice awoke the deer and 
the hunter ; and yet, although the birds sang to 
him, and the flowers sent up their perfume to 
greet him, and " though the forests and rivers 
sang and shouted at his coming," still he was 
not happy, for he was alone in heaven. But 
one morning while the villages were still sleep- 
ing, and the fog lay on the rivers, Wabun, look- 
ing downward, saw a beautiful maiden walking 
all alone in a meadow, gathering water- flags 
and rushes. And each day after that the first 
thing he saw was the maiden's eyes, which look- 
ed like two blue lakes among the rushes, and 



THE RED MEN. 



he loved the beautiful maiden and wooed her 
with the sunshine of his smile, and whispered 
to her in the gentle breezes which sang through 
the trees, and at last he drew her to him and 
changed her to a star, and then he was no longer 
sad, but happy, for he was no longer alone in 
heaven, but with him was his bride, the beauti- 
ful Wabun-Annung, the Morning Star. 

And then the story of Kabibonokka, the 
North Wind, who dwelt among the icebergs 
and snow-drifts in the land of the White Rabbit ; 
the North Wind, who in autumn " painted all 
the trees with scarlet and stained the leaves 
with red and yellow," and who drove the birds 
down to the land of the South Wind, ere he 
froze the rivers and lakes and ponds and sent 
the snow-flakes through the forest. 

And the story of Shawondassee, the South 
Wind, who dwelt in the land of summer, who 
sent the bluebirds and the robins and the 
swallows ; and the smoke from his pipe 

" Filled the sky with haze and vapor, 
Filled th^ air with dreamy softness, 
Gave a twinkle to ^^.le water, 



THE RED MEN. 19 



Touched the rugged hills with smoothness, 
Brought the tender Indian Summer 
To the melancholy north-land." 

And the South Wind had also his trouble, 
for he loved a maiden whom he saw one day- 
standing on the prairies, clothed in bright green 
garments, and with hair like sunshine ; but he 
did not try to woo the maiden, but only sighed 
and sighed, until one morning behold he saw 
that her yellow hair had grown white, and the 
air seemed full of snow-flakes which rose from 
the earth and were wafted away by the wind ; 
for, after all, it was not a maiden that the South 
Wind had loved, but only a prairie dandelion, 
whose petals had turned to down and floated 
away. Do you not think these Indian children 
learned pleasant things in their school ? There 
was one story which they liked very much, and 
which you may also hear. It was the Legend 
of the Red Swan, and it told of an Indian war- 
rior, who with his three brothers went out to 
shoot, and each one said that he would kill no 
other animal except the kind he was used to 
killing. The warrior , had not gone far before he 



20 THE RED MEN. 



saw a bear, which he shot, although he should 
not have done so, as he was not in the habit of 
killinof bears. But as he was skinnino- the dead 
bear, the air all around him turned red, and he 
heard a strange noise in the distance ; he fol- 
lowed the noise and found it came from a beau- 
tiful red swan, which was sitting far out in a 
lake, and whose plumage glittered in the sun 
like rubies, and although the Indian warrior 
tried very hard to shoot the swan with his magic 
arrows, still he could not kill it, for it rose and 
flapped its wings and flew slowly away toward 
the setting sun. 

All these stories and many others, of war 
and hunting and bravery, did these dusky chil- 
dren of the Western World listen to eagerly. 
And when an Indian boy wished to excel his 
friends and become their leader, he did not take 
his books and study algebra or geometry or 
Latin, for they had no such books ; he did not 
even try to be best in a game of cricket or ball, 
or to be a good oarsman, but he would train his 
eye so he could shoot a bird on the wing so far 
up in the sky that one could scarcely see it ; he 



THE RED MEN. 21 



would train his muscle so that he could fieht 
hand to hand with bears and wild-cats if need 
be ; he would learn to find the trail of an enemy- 
through the deep forest, guided only by the 
bent twigs or broken leaves, and he would be 
able to send his arrow straight through the 
heart of the deer which bounded over the pre- 
cipices and mountains. And the little Indian 
girls would learn of their mothers how to pre- 
pare skins of animals and make moccasins and 
garments out of them ; how to ornament belts 
and leggings with shells and beads and feath- 
ers ; how to plant corn and cook the food. And 
do you want to know how the Indian babies 
were taken care of? They were fastened so 
tightly in their queer little cradles that they 
could not move. The cradles were made in 
such a manner that they could be carried on the 
mother's back, or hung in a tree, or placed on 
the ground. If the Indian babies grew tired of 
being left all alone in this way, no one minded 
them ; they might cry and cry, but no one paid 
any attention, for their mothers believed in teach- 
ing them patience in this way. 



22 THE RED MEN. 



The Indians were very fond of games ; they 
used to play ball and have famous ball matches 
on the ground in summer and on the ice in 
winter ; and then they had races and liked shoot- 
ing at targets, just as you do now. The game 
of lacrosse, which is played so much in Canada, 
is an Indian game, as is also tobogganing and 
snow-shoeing. 

In the winter the Indians travelled from 
place to place on their snow-shoes ; these were 
made of maple-wood and deer's hide, and fast- 
ened on the feet by pieces of deer's hide, and 
upon these curious shoes the Indians could 
travel very fast, sometimes forty miles a day, 
when huntinof the deer and moose. Each tribe 
of Indians had its own peculiar kind of snow- 
shoe, and one Indian meeting another in the 
forest could tell by the totem tattooed on the 
breast and by the pattern of the snow-shoe to 
what tribe he belonged, and whether he were 
friend or foe. 

They used to travel by water in their 
graceful birch-bark canoes ; these were made 
by stripping off the bark from a birch tree and 



THE RED MEN. 23 



fastening it whole around the frame of cedar. 
Some of the canoes were very long and could 
carry ten or twelve men. Every little Indian 
boy and girl could manage his canoe with the 
greatest ease, either sitting or standing, and 
long hours they spent in them, paddling on the 
lakes and fishinsf in the shadow of the moun- 
tains. 

The Red Men were a very poetical people, 
and the names which they gave to their moun- 
tains and lakes and rivers were often very fanci- 
ful. Many of these we have kept, as Mississippi, 
the Father of Waters ; Minnehaha, Laughing 
Water ; Canadarauga, The Smile of the Great 
Spirit ; Housatonic, Winding Waters ; Horicon 
(the Indian name for Lake George), Silver 
Water ; Ohio, Fair to Look Upon, etc. 

The names of the months were also very 
poetical and pretty ; the Indians did not divide 
the years into months, but moons, and instead 
of saying last month, or next month, they would 
say at the time of the last moon, or the next 
moon, and their weeks were called from the 
changes in the moon, when it was new or 



24 THE RED MEN. 



quarter or full. April was the Moon of Bright 
Nights ; May, the Moon of Leaves ; June, the 
Moon of Strawberries ; September, the Moon 
of Falling Leaves ; November, the Moon of 
Snow-shoes, etc. 

And besides they had their own names 
for all the wonderful and curious things in the 
heavens ; thus the Milky Way was the Pathway 
of Ghosts ; the Northern Lights, the Death 
Dance of the Spirits ; the Rainbow was the 
Heaven of the Flowers, where they all blossomed 
again after fading on the earth, and the shadows 
on the moon w^ere the body of an old woman 
who had been thrown there by her grandson. 

Their picture-writing was very curious and 
interesting. The legend relates that Hiawatha 
taught the Indians this art, so that they might 
be able to remember their history better, and 
also be able to send messages to one another. 
In this picture-writing the Great Spirit, Gitche 
Manito, was painted as an egg, with four points, 
extending north, south, east, and west, which 
meant that the Great Spirit was everywhere. 
Mitche Manito, the Evil Spirit, was represented 



THE RED MEN. 25 



as a great serpent ; Life was shown by a light 
circle, Death by a black circle ; a straight line 
meant the Earth, and a bow above it the Sky ; 
foot-prints going toward a wigwam meant an 
invitation, but uplifted red hands were a sign of 
war, 

V The Indians also knew, or thought they did, 
what all the cries of the different animals meant, 
and they believed that these animals could 
understand them if they spoke to them. The 
bear was the favorite animal among the Indians 
and was used most frequently as a totem, and 
they had a belief that there was a very large 
bear living somewhere in the woods, naked all 
over except a spot of white hair on its back, 
which was more ferocious than any common 
bear, and they used to frighten their children 
by saying, " Hush, the naked bear will hear 
you, be upon you, and devour you." And the 
little Indian boys and girls were just as afraid 
of this naked bear as you are afraid of ghosts 
and hobgoblins and witches. It is true they 
never actually saw the naked bear, but then 
neither have you ever seen a ghost. 



26 THE RED MEN. 



The Indians were a very warlike people, the 
different tribes were almost always at war, and 
sometimes for .years at a time. In preparing 
for battle they used to paint their bodies in very 
bright colors, called war-paint, and dress their 
heads with feathers ; then all the warriors of the 
tribe would assemble for a feast, which was fol- 
lowed by a war-dance. A painted post would be 
driven into the ground, and the Indians would 
dance in a circle around it, brandishing their 
hatchets and screaming and shouting in a hid- 
eous manner. The night would be spent in this 
way, and then the Indians would take off their 
finery and go silently through the woods to the 
place where they knew the enemy to be. They 
did not fear death, as they believed that a brave 
warrior went as soon as he died to the Happy 
Hunting Grounds, where he would live forever, 
and they always buried the dead man's weapons 
with him, as it was supposed he would need 
them there. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE NORTHMEN. 

In the far north there is an island so cold and 
dreary that from time immemorial it has been 
called Iceland — the land of ice and snow and 
frosts. Here are no spreading forests or fields 
of flowers, but only here and there hardy ever- 
greens and a few pale blossoms, that come, 
perhaps, just to show how beautiful the place 
might become if only the short Icelandic sum- 
mer lasted as long as the sunny months farther 
south. All around the rocky, frozen shores 
break the white waves of the Northern Ocean, 
and in the summer one may see the great ice- 
bergs sailing past, and hear the voices of the 
birds that have come northward for a little visit. 

In the winter the days are so short and the 
cold is so intense that the children are almost 
shut off from out-door life, and are glad to take 
up with in-door games and plays. But they 



28 THE NORTHMEN. 

are very happy in spite of this, for they are 
a healthy, sturdy race, and Hke the ice and 
cold and snow. In the lono- winter evenins^s 
they gather around the fire and listen to the 
old stories that have been told in their land 
for hundreds of years, the stories of Odin and 
Thor and Baldur, for long, long ago the religion 
of the Northmen was very different from what it 
is now. Then they believed not in one god 
but many, of whom Odin was the chief, who 
dwelt in Valhalla, the Northmen's heaven. And 
no one could enter there who had not died 
fighting, which made the Norse heroes very 
anxious to die in battle. Perhaps you will re- 
member this god better when you hear that 
one of the days of the week is named after 
him, for Wednesday means Woden's day, and 
Woden was only another name for Odin. Thurs- 
day is also named after one of the Norse gods, 
the great Thor, called the thunderer, who held 
a mighty hammer in his hand which no one 
else could lift, and of whom every one was 
afraid. But of all their gods the people loved 
best Baldur, the beautiful ; they called him the 



THE NORTHMEN. 29 

fair white god, and not only was he beloved by 
the people but all things in nature loved him 
and had promised never to harm him, all things, 
that is, excepting the mistletoe. One day there 
was a great company gathered together, and 
they all agreed to shoot arrows at Baldur just 
to prove that nothing could hurt him ; so they 
shot arrows of oak and hemlock and pine, and 
they threw great stones at him, but he remained 
unharmed amid it all, for all things loved him 
and refused to do him injury ; and Baldur smiled 
upon the people and they raised their hands 
above their heads and vowed that they would 
worship him forever. And now entered Hoerder, 
an evil spirit, who had found out the secret of 
the mistletoe; he asked permission to shoot 
an arrow at Baldur, and took up one made of 
the mistletoe, the one thing in the world that 
could harm the beautiful god. Hoerder took 
aim and the arrow sped on its way, and thus 
died Baldur the beautiful, by the hand of Hoer- 
der the evil one. And the people mourned for 
him, and all things in nature wept over the death 
of the fair white god. And when hundreds of 



30 THE NORTHMEN. 



years had passed away, and the people had 
ceased to beheve in Odin and Thor they still 
loved the memory of Baldur ; and when they 
listened to the story of Christ and his death on 
the cross, they said He was like the beautiful 
one who had been slain by Hoerder ; so the 
priests, to please the people, twined the cross 
with mistletoe, and to this day at Christmas- 
time little English children, descendants of the 
fierce Norse rovers, gather the mistletoe, to- 
gether with the holly and evergreen, and all 
bright and beautiful things, and deck the churches 
with them in honor of the birth of Him who 
came to destroy evil, and to bring peace on 
earth and good-will to men. And thus the name 
of Baldur lives, for the memory of the good 
can never die, but lives forever in the heart, 
even as the stars forever shine in heaven. 

Besides the old stories of their gods, the 
people of these North countries have many 
other tales they relate of things which actually 
happened. Living so near the ocean, they were, 
of course, great sailors, and often went off on 
long voyages, which lasted sometimes a year or 



THE NORTHMEN. 3 1 

two. In the old histories of Iceland we read 
that Erik the Red, as he was called, being un- 
justly treated by his neighbors, resolved to leave 
Iceland and seek a home elsewhere. So he 
gathered his friends together and took ship and 
sailed away boldly toward the west. No one 
then knew that there was any land west of Ice- 
land, so many of his friends expected never to 
see him again. But Erik was a brave sailor and 
kept sailing on and on, still westward, until one 
day he did see land, and then steering southward 
along the coast he found a place where he might 
land safely. Here he stayed the whole winter, 
calling the place Erik's Island ; then he looked 
around for a spot suitable to live in always, 
and, having found one, a little village was built, 
and there he remained two years. When he 
went back to Iceland he told the people of the 
new land he had found, and called it Green- 
land, as he thought that name would sound 
pleasant to them, and they would be eager to 
go there and live, and so they were, and Erik 
soon sailed away again toward Greenland, 
taking with him this time twenty-five ships 



32 THE NORTHMEN. 



filled with people and food and all things they 
might need in a new country ; and having 
reached the little village which Erik had be- 
gun they landed in safety and were soon busy 
makinof new homes for themselves in that west- 
ern Greenland which had been discovered by 
the bold rover Erik the Red. 

This happened about eight hundred years 
ago. A short time after, Biarni, another brave 
Icelander, resolved to go to Greenland too. So 
he set sail, and for three days they went on 
briskly with a fair wind; then arose a most fear- 
ful storm, before which they were driven for 
many days, they knew not whither. At length 
the storm ceased, and sailing westward another 
day they saw land different from any they had 
ever seen before, for it was low and level and 
had no mountains. The sailors anxiously asked 
if this were Greenland, but Biarni said no, it 
could not be. Then they turned the ship about 
and sailed toward the North for two days, and 
again they saw land, but it was still low and 
level, and they thought this could not be Green- 
land ; so they kept sailing northward for three 



THE NORTHMEN. 33 



days more, and then they came to a land that 
was mountainous and covered with ice ; this land 
they sailed quite around, proving- it to be an 
island ; they were almost discouraged, but kept 
on four days more, and then at last Greenland 
came in sight. Erik and his companions list- 
ened with great interest to the stories which 
Biarni told of the strange new lands he had 
seen, but they were all too busy to go in search 
of them ; and so it came about that for many 
years the places which we now call Cape Cod, 
Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland remained un- 
known to all of the Northmen except Biarni 
and his brave followers. 

Finally, Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the Red, 
determined to go in search of the strange lands 
seen by Biarni. He bought Biarni's ship, and 
taking thirty-five men with him, started off on 
one of those perilous voyages so clearly loved 
by the Norsemen. The first land he saw was 
the mountainous, icy island round which Biarni 
had sailed, and which Leif named Helluland, 
meaning the land of broad stones ; then he sailed 
farther south and came to a land low and level 



34 THE NORTHMEN. 

and covered with wood, which they called Mark- 
land, the land of woods ; now they went still 
farther south for two days and then touched 
at an island, probably Nantucket, and sailing 
through a bay between this island and the main- 
land, they passed up a river and landed. Here 
they built rude huts and prepared to pass the 
winter. It was about the middle of autumn, and 
finding there wild grapes growing, they called 
the country Vinland. Leif and his people were 
much pleased with the pleasant climate and fruit- 
ful soil of the new country, and stayed there con- 
tentedly all winter. The next spring they loaded 
their ships with timber and returned to Green- 
land. In the meantime Erik the Red had died, 
and Leif, on his return, succeeded him in com- 
mand of the Greenland colony and made no 
more voyages. 

But the next year Thorvald, Leif's brother, 
went to Vinland and. spent the winter, and the 
following summer sailed away down the coast as 
far as the Carolinas, coming back, however, in 
the autumn to Vinland. The next summer, while 
coasting around Cape Cod, they saw on the 



THE NORTHMEN. 35 



sandy shore of the bay three small elevations ; 
these proved to be three boats made of skin, 
with three men under each ; they seized all the 
men but one, who ran away with his boat, and 
they killed all those they had taken. Immedi- 
ately, from a small bay, hundreds of small skin 
boats were seen coming toward them all filled 
with these strange people. Thorvald told his 
men to set up their battle-shields and guard 
themselves as well as possible, but to fight little 
against them, which they did, and the Skrael- 
lings, as they called them, shot at the Norsemen 
for a time, but at last fled away ; but they had 
wounded the brave Thorvald with an arrow so 
that he died, and his companions becoming dis- 
couraged returned the next spring to Green- 
land, after an absence of three years. 

But Vinland was now well known, and there 
were many voyages made there, chiefly for the 
timber, of which there was a great want in 
Greenland. The children of Erik the Red were 
always ready to go on these voyages, for they 
inherited their father's bold and roving disposi- 
tion. There is one story which tells of a voy- 



36 THE NORTHMEN. 



age to Vinland made by Freydis, Erik's daugh- 
ter, a cruel, hard-hearted woman, who, during 
the voyage, killed her husband's brothers and 
seized the ship ; but for this she was punished 
by Leif on her return. Then there is another 
story of Gudrid, a beautiful woman who had 
married Thorstein, Erik's youngest son, who 
died while getting ready to go to Vinland. Gud- 
rid married after this a man by the name of 
Thorfinn, who took her to Vinland to live, and 
here was born their son Snorri, who was per- 
haps the first white child born in America. 

While they were in Vinland, Thorfinn and 
his companions had many battles with the na- 
tives, or Skraellings, and once Freydis, being 
with them, fought fiercely, killing many natives 
with her own hand. After spending three years 
in Vinland, Thorfinn and Gudrid went to Ice- 
land, and remained there the rest of their lives, 
and the little boy, Snorri, lived and grew to 
manhood, and among his descendants was the 
great Danish sculptor, Thorwaldsen. 

There are many other tales of these visits of 
the Vikings to the New World, but they cannot 



THE NORTHMEN. 37 

be written here ; but you must remember that 
hundreds of years before anything was known 
of America to the rest of Europe, the bold Norse 
sea-kings came here — Erik the Red, Leif the 
Lucky, Biarni, Thorvald, and Thorfinn — and that 
Greenland, Newfoundland, Cape Cod, Nova 
Scotia, and Rhode Island were well known to 
the Northmen at a time when the rest of the 
world had never dreamed of a country lying on 
the other side of the great Atlantic. 



CHAPTER V. 

COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

If you will look at your map you will see on 
the western shore of Italy a city which has be- 
come celebrated as the birthplace of a great 
man. It is called Genoa, the Superb, and in 
this city was born, over three hundred years 
ago, the man who was to make it immortal. 
Genoa is a beautiful city. It looks from the sea 
like a great picture. Its churches, palaces, prom- 
enades, and gardens stretch in terraces from the 
Mediterranean up to the slopes of the Apen- 
nines, and behind are seen the ice-covered peaks 
of the Alps. It has a mild and healthy cli- 
mate, and on the mountains around grow grain, 
grapes, oranges, figs, almonds, chestnuts, etc. 
The streets of the city are mostly narrow, ir- 
regular, and sometimes so steep that carriages 
cannot be used in them, although there are a 
few that arc straight and handsome. Genoa is 




YOUNG COHTMISPS. 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 39 

famed for its palaces and for its great works of 
sculpture and painting. But its narrow, crooked 
streets are, after all, the most interesting thing 
about it, for in them Columbus, when a boy, 
walked and played. Of course, having been 
born near the sea, he was naturally very fond of 
it, and doubtless spent many hours standing on 
the wharves watching the ships enter and leave 
the harbor, and while yet a boy he determined 
that he would be a sailor and spend his life on 
the great sea which he loved so well. At ten 
years of age he was sent by his father to the 
university of Pavia to study navigation and 
other things, as it was considered necessary 
that seamen should be well educated, although 
at that time very few people, even among the 
nobles, knew how to write. He stayed in Pavia 
nearly four years, and then returned to Genoa 
and entered his father's workshop. But here 
he remained but a short time, for at the age of 
fourteen he went to sea in a vessel under com- 
mand of his granduncle, Colombo. For twenty 
years he followed the sea, during which time 
he was in many battles, always appearing brave, 



40 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

and often encouraging his sailors by his exam- 
ple. During this time he visited nearly all the 
ports that were then known, but still he was 
not satisfied. 

You must remember that at that time no one^ 
knew the real shape of the earth ; they had no 
idea that it was round, but supposed it to be a 
flat plane, with the ocean lying around its edges. 
What strange things might be found on the 
other side of the ocean they did not know. 
Some said that this ocean, which they called the 
" Sea of Darkness," and which was supposed to 
stretch away to the end of the world, had many 
large islands lying in it, one of which had been 
visited by some bishops who were flying from 
the Moors, and who built seven large cities 
there — one for each bishop ; but that, having 
burned their ships, they could not send back 
any tidings to the world they had left. A great 
many people believed this, and there were even 
some ships sent out to try and find the island, 
but of course they never did. 

Another story which they were very fond of 
telling was, that a giant called Mildum had 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, 41 

actually seen in the western sea an island of 
gold, with walls of crystal, and offered to swim 
to it with a ship in tow ; but a storm came up, 
and the giant went ashore and died, and no one 
ever found the golden island. 

But there were some thinofs which made it 
seem as though there really might be land 
somewhere out in the Atlantic. For instance, 
Columbus' brother-in-law had seen a piece of 
curiously carved wood which had been washed 
ashore in a westerly gale, and an old pilot had 
picked up a carved paddle very far west of 
Portugal. These things were very unlike any- 
thing that the Europeans had ever seen before, 
and they of course supposed that they must 
have been made by some unknown race of men. 
Then, besides, cane-stalks of tropic growth had 
been washed on the Madeiras, and great pine- 
trees on the Azores ; and once, strangest thing 
of all, two drowned men, of different dress and 
looks from any they had ever known, had been 
found on the island of Flores. All these had 
come from the West — that great, curious, un- 
known West ! Can you not imagine how the 



42 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OP^ AMERICA. 

little children would go down to the shore and 
look across the sea, and wonder and wonder 
what lay beyond it ? They had heard such 
strange stories of giants and monsters and cruel 
beasts, who were said to live away off there out 
of the sight of land, and it all seemed so curious 
to them. They could not believe that there 
was really land out beyond that blue sea, on 
which sometimes they could not even see a sail. 
It only looked to them like a great empty stretch 
of water, and they felt just as you would feel if 
you looked up to the sky some cloudless day. 
You would see nothing but the empty blue 
stretching away and away and away. 

Would you not laugh if some one said to 
you, "Come, let us take a boat and sail away 
into the sky, and find a new country that some 
one says is there ? " 

Well, in those days, almost every one thought^ 
it was just as silly to suppose there was land on 
the other side of the Atlantic. 

But there were some people who really be- 
lieved there was land lying across the great sea, 
and one of those persons was Columbus. 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 43 



He was a very wise man, and had learned 
all that was then known of geography, and 
he felt sure from many things that the earth 
was round in shape, and that if he sailed west 
across the Atlantic, he would come to land. 
He did not dream of finding a new country, but 
he thought that the world was much smaller 
than it really is, and that by sailing westward 
he would come to India much sooner than by 
going the usual way. 

At that time India was a very important 
country. Very rare and beautiful things were 
brought from there, such as silks, gold, pearls, 
ivory, diamonds, rare woods, and many other 
costly and useful things. Great companies of 
men were all the time going and coming over- 
land to and from India, and it took a long time, 
and was a very expensive way of going. The 
merchants travelled part of the way on horses 
and part of the way on camels, and the long 
caravan would go winding across the desert, and 
through mountain passes, over the plains, guided 
by the stars, or resting at night around great 
fires ; and if you could see such a sight now you 



44 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

would think it was a great gypsy camp. Then, 
oftentimes, people who wished to travel to In- 
dia, or to the places on the way thither, would 
join these caravans, as it was much the cheaper 
and safer way, and so there would be found 
every kind of people travelling together — Jews, 
Arabs, Spaniards, Dutch, and many others^all 
on their way to obtain those wonderful and 
beautiful things from the East ; if you had lived 
at that time, and had started on a journey 
to India, it would have been as different from 
such a journey now as you can imagine. Then, 
after leaving Europe you would have travelled 
all the way on the back of a camel ; and although 
these caravans sometimes moved during the day, 
resting at night, still, much the greater part of 
the travelling, owing to the heat of the sun, 
was done in the nio^ht-time. About ten o'clock 
at night you would have heard the sound of the 
trumpets. This was to tell you that the cara- 
van was about to move on. Then the tents were 
folded up, the camels loaded with the merchan- 
dise, the travellers mounted on their horses or 
camels, and about midnight, after the third blast 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 45 

from the trumpets, the march would bec^in. 
Great kettles of burning pitch would send their 
flames flashing over the desert, and the men 
and beasts travelled onward throuMi the nieht 
by this ruddy gleam. Sometimes, in the earlier 
part of the journey, the line of march would lay 
along the sea, and then the thunder of Its waves 
would be heard minoflingf with the sones of the 
slaves and the bells of the camels. Ridine 
across a desert is much like sailing across the 
sea. There is very little variety. You see the 
same thing day after day. In sailing, you see 
the sea and sky, and occasionally a ship's sail ; 
in journeying across a desert you see the sand 
and sky, sometimes an Arab or two looking 
wonderingly at the caravan before darting off to 
their hidden retreats, and more often only the 
bones of camels and elephants scattered on 
either side of the route, and dazzling the sight 
with their white gleam. The only thing that 
would break in upon the sameness would be 
the stops at the springs for water and rest, 
when the sacks of food and wine were un- 
packed from the camels, and the travellers 



46 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

would alight and stay until the heat of the 
day was past. 

Of course, you little American boys and girls 
have never travelled in this way, but it was the 
usual way at that time, and much labor and 
time and money it cost ; and so it was consid- 
ered that it would be a great gain to the world 
if people could find a shorter way of going to 
India, and this was one reason why Columbus 
wished to see if the world were really round. 
For, of course, if it were round, India, they said, 
must be riofht on the other side of the Atlantic. 
You see they had no idea that this big America 
lay in the way between them and India. They 
thought that, at the most, there were only some 
larcje islands there. 

And so _ Columbus thought it all over and 
decided to try for himself, and see if he could 
reach India by sailing across the ocean. But 
he was to have many disappointments before he 
started off. In the first place, very few people 
thought as he did about the shape of the earth, 
and the different countries were unwillinor to risk 
men and money in an undertaking which they 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 47 



were sure would amount to nothing. Columbus 
tried to obtain help from his own people ; first, 
from the republic of Genoa, then from the repub- 
lic of Venice, and the court of Portugal, and for 
seven years he tried to get help from Ferdinand 
and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain. And 
at last, after ten years of waiting and seeking, 
the wished-for help came. Isabella, queen of 
Spain, listened to Columbus' plans, and liked 
them so much that she said she would send the 
expedition out at the expense of her own king- 
dom of Castile, and, if necessary, would pawn 
her jewels to get enough of money ; but this last 
she did not have to do. 

It was hard work to find sailors willinof to q-q 
on this long voyage across the unknown seas, 
and many of the men had to be forced into the 
service ; but after three months' delay the expe- 
dition was ready, and on August 3, 1492, the 
three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and 
the Nina, left the port of Palos on the most won- 
derful voyage that has ever been undertaken — 
the voyage which ended in the discovery of the 
great New World. 



48 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

And so Columbus sailed away toward the 
sun setting. In about a month he reached and 
passed the Canary Islands, the farthest known 
land. This was on Sunday, September 6, 1492. 
And then the voyage really began. The day 
passed, and, as the sky and the sea grew dark, 
the sailors became terrified, and when at last 
night fell, and they lost sight of the land which 
bordered the great sea of darkness, they wept 
from fear, and said they should never return to 
their homes. Columbus had a hard time to quiet 
their fears, but finally they grew calm and lis- 
tened to his descriptions of the beautiful country 
toward which they were sailing. And so they 
went on, sometimes hopeful and sometimes de- 
spairing, and once they made a plot to throw 
Columbus overboard and then turn the ships 
about and go home, but happily this was not car- 
ried out. As they advanced, the oldest sailors 
were deceived by frequent signs of land. On the 
26th they entered into a region where the air 
was soft and balmy, and fields of sea-weed began 
to appear. " This day and the day after," said 
Columbus, " the air was so mild that it wanted 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 49 

but the song of the nightingales, to make it like 
the month of April in Andalusia." 

One evening, just as the sun was going down 
there came a cry of ''Land!'' from the Pinta, 
which was leading the other ships. Columbus 
had promised a reward to him who should first 
see land, and Martin Alonzo Pinzon, who was 
ahead in the Pinta, now claimed the reward. 
He said that he saw land in the west ; they all 
looked and saw a dark, cloudy mass about 
twenty-five leagues away. Columbus and the 
sailors knelt and sang Gloria iit Excelsis Deo / 
but in the morning, when they looked again for 
the hoped-for land, they saw nothing but the 
wide sea stretching away as far as the eye could 
see. The land which Martin Pinzon had seen 
from the stern of the Pinta had been but a 
cloud, which had disappeared in the night. 

But Columbus sailed on with hope and faith 
in his heart. Again and again they thought they 
saw land, and again and again they were disap- 
pointed ; but at last they saw land-birds flying 
around, a piece of carved wood was picked up 
by the Pinta, and the Nina secured a branch of 
3 



50 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

thorn with red berries, which was drifting by, 
and Columbus felt sure that they were near their 
journey's end. The men were called to even- 
ing prayer, and the vesper hymn to the Virgin 
floated out over the waves of the Atlantic, the 
first time probably that a Christian hymn had 
ever been sung upon that darkening sea. Then 
Columbus ordered a double watch to be set. 
" We shall see land in the morning," said he. 
He spent the entire night on the deck ; no one 
slept ; they were all too much excited at the pros- 
pect of seeing land. Can you not imagine how 
rejoiced Columbus must have been to think that 
at last his long and weary voyage was nearly 
over, and that he had been right in saying that 
the world was round, and that there was land 
across the ocean ? Ah ! no one can understand 
how he felt, for no one before or since ever 
started out on such a voyage as that. A voy- 
age across the great, mysterious, unknown sea, 
which was supposed to extend to the ends of 
the earth, and on whose farther borders demons 
and terrible beasts were thought to live. 

At ten o'clock that night Columbus, looking 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 5 1 

wistfully seaward, saw a light ; he called to two 
of the sailors, one of whom saw the light and 
one did not. At two o'clock the next morning, 
being Friday, October 12, 1492, the Pinta fired 
a gun, the signal for land. Rodrigo Triana, a 
sailor of the Pinta, was the first who saw the 
New World. The ships lay to, and all waited 
impatiently for morning. 

The day broke, and the New World lay be- 
fore them. About six miles away they saw an 
island thickly covered with trees and with crowds 
of natives running up and down its shores. 
At sunrise the small boats were lowered, and 
Columbus, bearing the royal standard of Cas- 
tile, and Martin Pinzon and his brother, each 
bearing a flag with a green cross, were rowed 
to the shore to the sound of music. Columbus 
first stepped on the beach, the others followed, 
and all knelt and kissed the ground with tears 
and thanks to God. Then Columbus rose, 
shook out the gorgeous red and gold flag of 
Spain, and drawing his sword, took possession 
of the island in the name of the crown of Cas- 
tile, calling it San Salvador, 



52 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

The wondering natives looked on in silence ; 
they thought their visitors were gods who had 
come down from heaven, whereas the Span- 
iards thought they had never seen a place so 
much like heaven as this beautiful island. Birds 
of gorgeous plumage hovered above them, 
while others made the place sweet with their 
music. The air was soft and pleasant, and flow- 
ers and fruits were abundant. After their long 
sea voyage they found it a most pleasant spot, 
and would gladly have remained there for a 
long time. 

But Columbus did not consider that his 
work of discovery was yet done. Some of the 
natives, who wore ornaments of gold, told him 
of a country in the south from which it had 
come ; so Columbus, taking seven of the natives 
with him, started off to find this land of gold, 
which he supposed to be Cipango (Japan). He 
did not find the gold which he sought, but he 
did find something else — the island of Cuba — 
which he first thought was Cipango, but after- 
ward concluded it was the mainland of India. He 
then sailed on, discovering the island of Hayti, 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 53 

which he thought was Ophir, that land of gold 
from which had been brought the cfold and 
jewels for Solomon's Temple. He called this 
island Hispaniola, or Little Spain, and, building 
a fort there of the timbers of the Santa Maria, 
and leaving in it thirty-nine men, he sailed for 
Spain, in the Nina, taking with him several 
natives. Martin Pinzon had in the meantime 
started off gold-hunting, on his own account, in 
the Pinta. 

During the voyage back to Spain a fearful 
storm arose, and it was thought that the ship 
must go down ; of course, if this happened the 
people in Europe would never know what had 
become of Columbus and his sailors ; so he 
wrote an account of his voyage and discoveries, 
and, sealing it up in a cask, threw it overboard. 
But the storm at last ceased and they reached 
the Azores in safety, where the crew attended 
mass and gave thanks for their preservation. 
In March, six months from the time of their 
sailing, the Nina entered the harbor of Palos. 
Columbus was received with great honors by 
Ferdinand and Isabella. He was allowed to sit 



54 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

in their presence while he told the story of his 
wonderful adventures. The Spanish are a peo- 
ple very fond of romances and tales of daring, 
but never before had they listened to such a 
story as this. A story that told them that 
Spain would forever stand in history as the dis- 
coverer of a new world. No fairy tale was so 
marvellous as this. Aladdin's wonderful lamp 
and the vale of diamonds in the Arabian Nights 
were not to be compared to the riches of this 
new country, where the sands of every river 
sparkled with gold, where the stones and rocks 
shone with its glittering light, where the walls 
of the houses were studded with jewels, and 
where the poorest native wore ornaments that 
kings might envy. And in addition to these 
dazzling splendors they spoke of the mild and 
healthful climate, of the rare and delicious fruits 
that grew so abundantly, of the beautiful flow- 
ers, of the birds with sweetest songs and the 
most gorgeous plumage, of the rivers whose 
waters were health-giving, and of a wonderful 
fountain which gave immortal youth to all who 
mioht drink of it. 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 55 

And so Columbus had no difficulty in fitting 
out a second expedition ; men were eager to go, 
eager for gold, and, what was perhaps better, 
eager for glory ; they did not have to be pressed 
into the service this time. In September, 1493, 
Columbus sailed from Cadiz with a fleet of 
seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men. But 
he had left his good fortune behind him ; never 
again would such bright skies bend above 
him ; never again would he sail under such be- 
nignant stars ; henceforth his life was to be 
saddened by disappointment, and made bitter 
by the envy and hatred of those whom he had 
served. 

Many of the men who took ship with him 
on this second voyage were led to do so from 
the love of gold, and when they reached the 
New World and did not find the gold they 
sought, they grew angry and mutinous and 
quarrelsome, throwing the blame on Columbus, 
who, they said, had deceived them. It was not 
pleasant to govern such a lot of unruly, discon- 
tented men ; but Columbus was a man who never 
flinched in the face of danc^er, no matter of what 



56 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

kind; he kept on his way in spite of the mur- 
murings of his men, and was rewarded by the 
discovery of the Windward Islands, Jamaica 
and Porto Rico — then he founded a colony in 
Hayti, and leaving his brother, Bartolomme6, 
to govern it, sailed for Spain, reaching Cadiz 
about three years after his departure from it. 

Here he soon cleared himself of the com- 
plaints made against him, and silenced those 
who were jealous of his fame. Once, while 
sitting at table, a courtier said that, after all, it 
was not such a great thing to have discovered 
the new world, any one else could have done it. 
For answer Columbus asked him to make an 
egg stand on its end ; the courtier tried, but 
could not do it. Columbus then struck the egg 
on the table, breaking the shell a little, and then 
stood it on the table. 

" Any one can do that," said the courtier. 

" When I have shown you the way," replied 
Columbus. 

The courtier was silent, he knew well what 
Columbus meant. 

And now there was to be still another Voy- 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 57 

age made. In 1498 Columbus left Spain with 
six ships, and sailed across the Atlantic, taking 
a route more southerly than he had before done. 
This time he discovered the mouth of the Ori- 
noco, which he, still supposing that the country 
he had discovered to be Asia, thought was the 
river Gihon, which rose in the garden of Eden. 
He then skirted along the coast of South Amer- 
ica, passing the islands of Trinidad and Mar- 
garita, and then turned toward Hispaniola, 
where he hoped to recruit his health. He found 
the colony in a sad state, and while trying to 
restore peace he again became the object of 
jealousy and malice. A commissioner named 
Francisco de Bobadilla was sent from Spain to 
settle the trouble, and his first act was to put 
Columbus and his brother in chains and send 
them to Spain. 

" Are you taking me to death, Vallejo ? " 
asked Columbus, sadly, when the officer came 
to lead him from his cell. 

The officers of the ships wanted to take off 
his chains, but Columbus replied, " I will wear 

them as a memento of the gratitude of princes." 

3* 



58 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

When he arrived in Spain, the people were 
very indignant at the treatment which he had 
received ; and the king, in order to quiet them, 
said that he had not ordered Cokmibus to be 
put in chains. But the real reason why he had 
allowed him to be thus insulted was that he was 
disappointed at finding that the New World, 
after all, was not rich in gold and silver, and 
after nine months of waiting Columbus only saw 
a new governor appointed over Hispaniola, and 
no notice taken of his injuries. One more voy- 
age and then Columbus' work would be over. 
In 1502 he received command to sail in search 
of a passage leading westward from the Gulf of 
Mexico, which was then supposed to be a sea. 
He believed he should find a strait somewhere 
near where the isthmus of Panama now is, and 
that by passing through this strait he would 
reach the continent of Asia. On his way out he 
stopped at his colony at Hispaniola, where he 
hoped to refit, but was refused permission ; he 
sailed alone the south side of the Gulf of Mexico, 
but did not find the strait for which he M-as look- 
ing, and after much suffering from famine and 



COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 59 

Other hardships, he returned home. Here he lay 
sick for some months ; his old friend Queen Isa- 
bella was dead, and King Ferdinand refused to 
give him any reward for his long and faithful 
service. He was seventy years old, poor, and 
in ill health. To quote his own words, he had 
" no place to go to except an inn, and often with 
nothing to pay for his food." And so the dis- 
coverer of the New World, suffering, neglected, 
deserted by those he had spent his life in serv- 
ing, died while repeating the Latin words, 
" Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." 
They are the last words of a great man ; a man 
who lived a noble life, and who met death as 
bravely and fearlessly as he met the unknown 
terrors which lay in his way when he sailed for 
the first time across the great " sea of dark- 
ness." Seven years after his death the people, 
for very shame's sake, placed a marble tomb 
over his remains, with the inscription : 

" A Castilla y a Leon, 
Nuevo mondo did Colon." 



6o COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERY OF AMERICy\. 

(" To Castile and Leon, a new world gave 
Colon.") 

Afterward his remains were taken to St. 
Domingo and placed in a cathedral in that city. 
And nearly two hundred years later they were 
removed with great pomp to the cathedral at 
Havana, where they rest within sound of the 
waves of the sea, in that beautiful city, where 
the air is indeed "like the spring in Andalusia," 
balmy and soft, perfumed with flowers, and made 
musical with the songs of birds. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CABOTS. 

About the time of the discovery of America, 
there was living in England an old man, who 
loved the sea better than anything else in the 
world. He was not an Englishman, but a Vene- 
tian, and many years before he had left his 
home in beautiful Venice to seek a home in 
England. The name of this old man was John 
Cabot, and he was considered one of the great- 
est sailors living. He had guided his ships 
among the islands of the Mediterranean, and 
had sailed up the Atlantic coast to the British 
Isles, and then, not satisfied, he had gone on 
into the frozen regions of the North, and had sat 
by Iceland firesides listening to the tales of the 
Norsemen and their wonderful voyages across 
the sea to a New World. And while he list- 
ened he thought what a fine thing it would be 
if he too should sail away some day to visit this 



62 THE CABOTS. 



Strange country ; so after returning to England, 
he asked permission of the king to fit out some 
ships and go on a voyage of discovery. He 
had heard of the voyage of Columbus, and he 
thought that by sailing far to the north he 
might find new lands as rich and beautiful as 
those which Columbus had discovered. So 
about the year 1494, or 1497, he sailed from 
England, taking with him his son Sebastian. 

Very different was their voyage from that of 
Columbus ; keeping ever to the north, the 
waters of the Atlantic showed them no genial 
skies, or islands adorned with waving forests 
and beautiful flowers, but instead, they found 
fog and mist, cold, chilling winds, and great, 
glittering icebergs. The first land seen by them 
was Cape Breton, which they called Prima Vista, 
^meaning first seen. They found the country 
cold and dismal, covered with ice and snow. 
As this new land was no farther north than 
England, they were surprised to see instead of 
green meadows, shady trees, and flowing rivers, 
only fields of snow, and while they knew the 
birds were singing in England, they saw here 



THE CABOTS. 63 



great white bears, which prowled around seek- 
ing their prey. 

Cabot did not remain long in America, he 
soon sailed again for England, which he reached 
three months from the time he had left. His 
voyage is important, as he was the first Eu- 
ropean, after the Northmen, to touch the main- 
land of North America. 

On his return he was received with great 
honor by the king. He went about dressed in 
silk and velvet, and everywhere great crowds 
would follow him and point him out as the Great 
Admiral. 

In 1498 Sebastian Cabot sailed with another 
expedition from England and reached the coast 
of Labrador. He tried to find a northwest 
passage to Asia, but the climate was so cold 
that he gave up the idea and sailed down the 
coast as far as Virginia, claiming the whole 
country for the King of England. He made 
still another voyage and explored Hudson's 
Bay, but the accounts which he gave of the 
country were not very pleasing, and no English- 
man was willing to leave his own pleasant home 



64 THE CABOTS. 



to seek another in the New World, and for 
many, many years after this the EngHsh paid 
Uttle heed to the great continent which Cabot 
had discovered. 

Sebastian Cabot Hved to be an old man, and 
was always greatly honored by the English. 
He was called the Great Seaman, and as long 
as he lived he loved the ocean over whose 
waters he had sailed to honor and fortune. 




VESI'UCIUS r.ANDINO TO CHASTISE THE CANNIBALS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 

As soon as it became known in Europe that 
there really was land across the Atlantic, all the 
nations wished to send ships and men to gather 
the gold which they supposed to be there. The 
Spaniards, of course, thought that they had the 
best right to the new country, but the English 
and French sent out expeditions, and soon there 
arose a great quarrel as to whom the New 
World should belong. One of the most inter- 
esting voyages made at that time was that of 
Americus Vespucius. Like Columbus, he was 
an Italian, having been born in the beautiful 
city of Florence, but at the time of the discovery 
of the western world he was living in Spain. 
Vespucius sailed across the sea, and in the sum- 
mer of 1499 (the year after Columbus discov- 
ered the Orinoco), he landed on the coast of 
Venezuela. Here he saw a queer little village 



66 AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 

which looked as if some children had been try- 
inor to build a "make-believe" Venice. The 
village was built on piles driven into the water, 
and the houses, which were of such a shape 
that they looked like big bells, could only be 
entered by means of drawbridges. Each house 
had its own bridge, and when the owner wished 
he could draw the bridge up and no one could 
get in, and there he was just as safe as a turtle 
when it shrinks into its shell. 

Vespucius and his men had never seen any- 
thing like it before and looked at the funny little 
place in astonishment. But as soon as the na- 
tives saw the Spaniards, they drew up all their 
bridges and disappeared ; in a few minutes, 
however, Vespucius saw twenty-two canoes 
filled with these savages comingf toward his 

o o 

boats ; as soon as they got near enough they 
began shooting arrows at the Spaniards, and 
then Vespucius, seeing that they did not mean 
to be friendly, ordered the guns to be fired. 
The Indians were terribly frightened by the 
noise and smoke of the guns ; they had never 
seen such things before, and very soon they 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 6/ 

rowed back to the shore, and Vespucius sailed 
on farther south. When he landed next he 
found a more friendly tribe of Indians ; they 
were at first afraid of the Spaniards, and ran 
away when they saw them coming. Vespucius 
and his men went into the wigwams and found 
that the Indians had fires burning, upon which 
young alligators were roasting. By and by the 
Indians, seeing that the Spaniards meant no 
harm, came back and treated their guests so 
kindly that Vespucius stayed ' there nearly two 
weeks, visiting, in the meantime, some of their 
villages which were built back from the sea. 
The natives grew very fond of him, and hun- 
dreds of them followed him back to his ship, but 
when he ordered the cannon fired they all 
jumped back into the water and swam away. 
But Vespucius did not mean to harm them, so 
he called them back, and then the Indians and 
Spaniards exchanged presents and Vespucius 
sailed away. He still kept to the coast of Ven- 
ezuela, and sailing northwest entered the bay 
of Cremana. Here he found the natives friendly 
and remained with them more than a month, 



68 AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 

and they begged him to help them kill their 
enemies, who lived on an island in the sea, and 
who were a very great and powerful tribe, and 
came every year and took away many of their 
number whom they killed and ate. Vespucius 
promised to help them, and taking seven of them 
with him as guides, he started off for the island. 
As soon as the cannibals saw him coming 
they gathered on the shore ready for fight. 
They were covered with war-paint and feathers, 
and armed with arrows, lances and clubs. At 
first it seemed that the Spaniards would be 
beaten, as the Indians pressed around them so 
closely they could not use their swords, but 
finally the cannibals were driven back. Ves- 
pucius then tried to make friends with them, 
but they would not do so, and after a two days' 
fight he conquered them, burned their town, and 
sailed away with two hundred and fifty of them 
whom he sold for slaves on reaching Spain. 
This seems a very cruel act now, but in those 
times it was thought to be quite right to sell 
captives taken in war, and so Vespucius only did 
what he thought was perfectly fair. 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 69 

When Vespucius got back to Spain, he 
wrote a letter to a friend of his in Florence, giv- 
ing an account of his voyage and the lands he 
had visited. This letter was published a year 
or two afterward, and as it was the first printed 
account of a visit to the rnainland of the New 
World, it was read with much wonder and in- 
terest by the people who wanted to learn all 
they could of the strange lands beyond the 
ocean. 

J jNo one knows just how it happened that the 
new country was called America. Some of Ves- 
pucius' friends thought that the New World 
ought to be called after him, but it was well 
known that the honor of the great discovery 
belonged to Columbus alone. At any rate it 
came about that after reading Vespucius' book, 
people began talking about the land of Americus 
Vespucius, and finally it came to be called the 
land of Americus, or America. But although 
the great country itself is not named after Co- 
lumbus, yet mountains, rivers, and towns bear 
his name, and in poetry and songs, the United 
States, the greatest American country, is often 



70 AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 

called Columbia ; while in South America, one 
of the principal divisions is called the United 
States of Colombia. All of which shows that 
the people of the New World are very ready to 
honor its great discoverer. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PONCE DE LEON. 



Once upon a time there was an old man 
who had found Hfe so fair a thing that he wished 
to Hve forever, and to be forever young. He 
was born in Spain, and his childhood and youth 
and early manhood were so happy that when 
he grew old he was sad and wanted to bring 
the lost years back. Of course he could not do 
that ; new summers may come and new winters, 
but the years themselves never come back any 
more than do the same clouds, or the same sun- 
set, or the same rainbow. But de Leon, for 
that was the old man's name, did not believe 
this. When a child he had read many stories 
and romances in which wonderful things were 
done. He had all a Spaniard's love for adven- 
ture, and he believed there were things on the 
earth and in the earth which possessed strange 
power over the life of man. As he grew older 



72 PONCE DE LEON. 

he was taught to ride and fence, and many 
other things which it was considered necessary 
for a Spanish gentleman to know, but all the 
time he was dreaming over these marvellous 
things he had heard. When he became a man 
he entered the army, and was always a brave 
soldier, and eager for adventure of every sort. 
He sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, 
and afterward was made governor of the island 
of Porto Rico. 

Here in his island home he was not happy, 
although he had power, and wealth, and fame, 
for he sighed for the years that were gone, and 
dreaded the time to come when life would be 
no longer pleasant, for he was growing old and 
must die. 

And then he heard such a wonderful story, 
that while he listened, it seemed as if the years 
of his childhood came back and smiled upon 
him. Among the natives of Porto Rico it was 
believed that somewhere amono- the Bahama 
Islands there was a fountain of eternal youth ; 
and that whoever should bathe in this fountain, 
and drink of its waters, would find his lost youth 



PONCE DE LEON. 73 



again and be forever young. The Spaniards 
believed this story as well as the Indians, and 
when de Leon heard it he determined to go in 
search of the wonderful fountain. As he was 
very rich, this was not a hard thing to do ; he 
bought three ships and fitted them out with men, 
and started off. He sailed for some time amone 
the Bahamas, looking for the magic fountain, 
and one day, Easter Sunday, March 27, 15 12, 
he came in sight of an unknown shore. He 
thought he had discovered another island more 
beautiful than any of the rest. Never before 
had he seen anything so delightful as this new 
land ; the ground was covered with the most 
gorgeous flowers, and above, great trees spread 
out their green boughs and waved them in the 
soft air, and sweet-voiced birds sang among 
the fragrant blossoms. It seemed as if he had 
sailed into a world where there was nothing- but 
beauty, the native home of bird and blossom, 
the land of eternal summer. De Leon named 
the new country Florida, partly because he dis- 
covered it on Easter Sunday, which is called by 
the Spaniards Pascua Florida (flowery Easter), 



74 PONCE DE LEON. 



and partly because it was indeed a Land of 
Flowers. After a few days he landed a. little 
north of the place where the city of St. Augus- 
tine now stands, and took possession of the 
country in the name of the King of Spain. He 
then began again his search for the wonderful 
fountain, feeling sure that here where the flow- 
ers forever bloomed, and the birds ceased not 
to sing, he should drink the waters of immor- 
tal youth. But though he wandered through 
the forest, sailed up the silent, shady rivers, and 
searched eagerly along the coasts, never, save 
in his dreams, did he hear the music of the foun- 
tain, or see its waters shining in the sunlight. 

He returned to Porto Rico, and the king 
made him governor of the new country and sent 
him back there to found a colony. But when he 
landed he found that the Indians were all ready 
for war ; there was a dreadful battle, many of 
the Spaniards were killed, and the rest had to 
go back to the ships for safety. De Leon him- 
self was mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow, 
and was taken to Cuba, where he died ; and al- 
though many people still believed that the won- 



PONCE DE LEON. 75 

derful fountain would some day be found, it 
never was, for the flowers that close at night 
will open again in the morning, and the little 
stream that starts from the mountain and goes 
down to the sea, will have its waters carried 
back by the clouds to the mountains again, but 
the years that we leave behind us come not 
again, they have gone away forever with the 
daisies and buttercups and violets that shone in 
the meadow last year. 



CHAPTER IX. 

VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, THE DISCOVERER OF 
THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 

Among the many adventurers who found 
their way to the New World after its discovery 
was one named Balboa. He was a very bold, 
brave man, always ready for adventure and 
eager for gold and fame, as were all the Span- 
iards of that time. But Nunez de Balboa, 
besides being bold and brave, was also very 
cruel when he had the chance, and sometimes 
dishonest. Whenever he could he robbed 
the Indians of their gold, and often cruelly 
murdered them ; and if he thought he could 
steal from his fellow-soldiers and friends, he was 
ready to do that, too. So, altogether, he was 
a man not very much liked among the people 
with whom he lived in Hispaniola, and because 
of this, and also because he owed a great deal 
of money that he did not wish to pay, he 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 'J'] 

thought it would be a fine thing to run away 
and let his friends get back the money they had 
lent him as best they might. 

There were always ships touching and leav- 
ing Hispaniola, and Balboa thought nothing 
would be easier than to go on one of these 
ships some fine day and sail away to some new 
place where he would have better chances for 
borrowing and stealing than where he was so 
well known. But he found it much harder to 
get away from Hispaniola than he had thought. 
Either he had no money to pay for his passage, 
or the captain would not take such a trouble- 
some character on his ship, or the people whom 
he owed would not let him go without their 
money, or all three of these reasons together, 
for at any rate at the last moment he slipped on 
board a vessel that was just going to sail, and 
hid himself in a big empty cask, and had to lie 
there hardly daring to breathe lest he should be 
heard and put on shore again. But every one 
was busy trying to get the ship under way, and 
no one thought of looking into empty casks to 
see if there were men hiding there, and it was 



78 VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 

not until they were far, far from land that Bal- 
boa ventured to put his trembling head out of 
the cask and look fearfully around. All the 
sailors and passengers crowded around, very 
much surprised to see a man's head sticking 
out of what they had supposed to be an empty 
cask, and the captain was very angry indeed at 
the cheat that had been practised upon him, 
and vowed he would stop the ship at the first 
desert island he came to and put Balboa ashore 
and leave him there to starve to death. 

And then the bold runaway quite lost his 
brave heart and fell upon his knees and begged 
with tears that the captain would not treat him 
so cruelly, quite forgetting that he himself had 
often done things just as cruel, and the cap- 
tain, moved by the wretched man's tears and 
prayers, or perhaps because there was no desert 
island in sight, or even a passing ship that 
might be hailed to take the runaway back, said 
that he might finish the voyage with them. 
Balboa thanked the captain and promised good 
behavior, but in his heart he was very angry 
because of the threat to put him on a desert 




BALBOA IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN SEA. 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, 79 

island, and determined to be revenged on the 
captain if possible. 

Before very long his chance came. A ter- 
rible storm came up and the vessel was dashed 
to pieces upon a strange coast. Encisco, the 
captain, felt very glad now that he had kept 
Balboa on the ship, for, although the country 
was unknown to the captain and his crew, it 
was not unknown to Balboa. He had been 
there before, and said that he knew of an In- 
dian village not far away, where they could find 
food and shelter. Encisco was very glad to 
hear this, and they all started off under the 
leadership of Balboa to find the river Darien, 
on which the Indian village stood. 

They had been wrecked on the coast of Da- 
rien, and although neither Encisco nor any of his 
men had ever been there before, yet other Span- 
iards had, and had treated the natives cruelly 
and unjustly, as was their usual way of dealing 
with them. So when Encisco and his followers 
tried to march through this strange country 
they found it very hard work, as the natives 
attacked them at all times, day and night, kill- 



80 VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 

ing some, wounding others, and keeping them 
all from getting food. But Balboa was a skilful 
leader and knew how to deal with Indians, and 
after a time they reached the village, though 
weary and foot-sore and almost starved. 

Balboa's boldness made him very much ad- 
mired by some of the shipwrecked sailors, and 
soon a large party of them, attracted by his 
stories of bravery and adventure, declared that 
they would much rather have him for a captain 
than Encisco. This was just what Balboa 
wanted, and as his party grew larger and larger, 
and Encisco's friends fewer and fewer, Balboa 
at last declared that Encisco should no longer 
govern the little colony, as he himself was much 
more fit to be governor. Most of the party 
agreed to this, and so Balboa became governor, 
and a very cruel, bloody tyrant he proved. All 
the Indians around feared and hated him, and 
even his own men could not love him, and only 
respected his courage. 

One day the son of an Indian chief came to 
Balboa and told him that some days' journey 
away there lay a great sea, and on the other 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 



side of it a country so rich that the people ate 
and drank out of gold and silver dishes. The 
Spaniards in those days were ready to believe 
anything that the Indians said, and if Balboa 
had heard that the new sea was full of golden 
islands, and that the clouds rained diamonds 
and rubies into its depths, and that its waves 
threw pearls and corals on its beach, he would 
almost have believed it all ; and when he heard 
this wonderful news he immediately gathered 
his men together and started off to find the new 
sea. 

Again they had to fight tribe after tribe of 
Indians, who constantly tried to make them 
turn back, but the Spaniards pushed on, and 
after a hard journey, which took them quite 
across the Isthmus of Darien, came one day to 
a high mountain, from whose top the guide said 
the great sea could be seen. 

Balboa ordered all his men to stay below, 
while he climbed up the mountain alone, as he 
wished to be the first Spaniard to look upon the 
great ocean that so many brave adventurers had 
tried to find. So Balboa went alone up on the 



82 VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 

mountain peak, and, looking down on the other 
side, saw a vast body of water stretching away 
and away. The Indian's story had been true. 
Here was a great new ocean that no European 
had ever looked upon before. Balboa looked 
north and south and west, and saw only this 
blue sea, shining and peaceful, as if its waves 
had gone to sleep. 

Balboa knelt down on the mountain-top and 
thanked God that he had been permitted to 
make this great discovery, and then he beck- 
oned to his followers, who came rushing up and 
stood looking in wonder at the great sight be- 
neath them. 

The men piled up heaps of stone in token 
that they had taken possession of the country 
and ocean, and as they went down the slopes of 
the mountain, Balboa carved the name of Fer- 
dinand upon the trunks of trees. Then twelve 
men were sent on ahead to find the shortest 
path to' the shore, and Balboa, cruel as ever, 
gave orders that all the natives they should 
meet should be tortured and killed unless they 
would tell them where their stores of gold were 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 83 

hidden. The twelve men went on, and reaching 
the shore, saw two Indian canoes that had been 
washed up on the beach by the waves, and as 
the tide crept up and floated them off, two of the 
men — Alonzo Martin and Blaze de Atienza — - 
stepped into them, thus being the first Spaniards 
to sail upon the new ocean which Balboa had 
named the South Sea. A few days after, Bal- 
boa arrived at the shore, and wading into the 
water, waved his sword solemnly, and took pos- 
session of all the great ocean, and the islands 
that might be in it, and the countries that bor- 
dered it, in the name of the King of Spain, and 
vowed to defend them against all other Eu- 
ropean adventurers. 

This was in the year 15 13, one year after the 
discovery of Florida. And so Spain claimed 
the Pacific as well as the Atlantic coast of 
North America. 

The news of this great discovery at once 
made Balboa famous. All over Europe men 
talked of the bold man who had been the means 
of adding still more glory to the Spanish name, 
and as a reward for his services, the king made 



84 VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 

him Adelantado, or chief ruler, over all the great 
sea he had discovered. 

But among the Spaniards in Darien, Balboa 
was very much feared, and now that he was in 
such great favor at the Spanish court, every one 
dreaded that he would be more cruel and heart- 
less than before, because he had so much more 
power. And besides, his companions were jeal- 
ous of his fame, and thought that the honor of 
discovering the South Sea belonged quite as 
much to them as to him, quite forgetting that 
but for his courage and perseverance they would 
have turned back long before the sea came in 
sight. 

The man who disliked and feared Balboa 
the most was Peter Anias, the Governor of 
Darien, and about five years after the great dis- 
covery, he managed to get Balboa into his 
power, and ordered him to be beheaded. 

This was done, and thus perished one of the 
greatest of the Spanish discoverers. 



CHAPTER X. 

CABECA DE VACA. 

And now that Florida had been discovered, 
and the great South Sea added to the posses- 
sions of the Spanish crown, it was thought it 
would be a wise thinor to settle as much of the 
New World as possible, so that when all its treas- 
ures were found they would already be in the 
hands of the Spaniards and there would be no 
trouble about it. And so many expeditions were 
sent out from Spain. These expeditions always 
had two objects in view. First, to get what gold 
and silver might be found in America, and sec- 
ond, to find a short passage to the East. Peo- 
ple had never given up believing that there 
must be a short way of getting from the east- 
ern coast of America to India, and ship after 
ship was sent to seek the strait which was sup- 
posed to lead across the continent. For, impor- 
tant as the discovery of a new world seemed, it 



S6 CABECA DE VACA. 

was considered just as important to find a short 
way to the East, and when once the passage 
was found, to sail through it with Spanish ships 
and make its wealth a part of Spain. Very 
wonderful stories were told of the countries in 
the East — of Cathay, and Mangi, and Cipango 
— which had been visited by the great traveller, 
Marco Polo, and the man who could find the 
shortest way thither, would, of all men, receive 
the highest honor from the King of Spain. 
And so every one who sailed from Spain looked 
first toward America and then beyond it to the 
East. And no wonder, for these countries were 
richer than Mexico and Peru, more fertile than 
Florida, and more beautiful than Fairyland 
itself. There was nothing in the world that 
one mio-ht want that could not be found within 
the borders of these lands. For ages and ages 
this kingdom had been ruled by the great race 
of Kublai Khan, and these monarchs had no 
other thought than to make their kingdom the 
most beautiful and glorious of the whole earth. 
They had built great cities, and strong forts, 
and extensive highways ; it was said that within 



CABECA DE VACA. 8/ 

the Province of Mangi alone were twelve thou- 
sand cities, all within a short distance of one an- 
other. Chief of these cities was Quinsai, which 
covered a hundred miles of ground. On one 
side of it was a river, and on another side 
a lake, and through it flowed clear, winding 
streams spanned by twelve thousand beautiful 
bridges, which were so lofty that ships passed 
under them with ease. The streets were 
wide and bordered with palm trees, and fra- 
grant flowers bloomed all the year round in 
the gardens and parks. All the dwellings 
were of marble, and the temples and palaces 
were ornamented with precious stones. Ware- 
houses of stone stood in different parts of the 
city, filled with costly merchandise, silks and 
velvets, and cloth of gold, and all manner of 
rare articles made of gold and silver and moth- 
er-of-pearl, curiously and beautifully beaten and 
engraved. And crystal fountains kept the air 
pure and fresh, and great birds with gold and 
silver wings flew lazily from tree to tree, and 
one could not tell whether the city was more 
beautiful by day, when the sun shone down 



88 CABECA DE VACA. 

upon it and brightened the marble roofs and 
charming gardens, or by night, when the moon 
and stars were reflected in the lakes and rivers, 
and when the fountains glistened white in the 
moonlight, and the great squares and lofty 
palaces were illumined with a million crystal 
lamps. 

Most beautiful of all the palaces was that of 
the king, which stood in the centre of the 
city on a hill overlooking all the country 
round. It was so large that it covered ten 
acres, and its wide, lofty corridors, beautified 
with groups of magnolia and palm, seemed 
like magnificent avenues stretching from one 
palace to another. 

Within the enclosure were groves of pine 
and oak and many rare trees, and gardens 
filled with choicest flowers, and lakes on which 
swans floated, and in whose waters rainbow- 
hued fishes darted hither and thither. The 
palace itself was of the purest white marble, 
its roof was wrought in gold and supported by 
hundreds of pillars of pure gold, wonderfully 
adorned in azure arabesque, and having the 



CABECA DE VAC A. ' 89 

capitals studded with precious stones ; and all 
the air was sweet with perfumed fountains, and 
ever)'where it was continual summer from the 
abundance of flowers and the songs of birds. 

And the king and all his people enjoyed 
their beautiful city as much as possible, for they 
were so rich they had to work very little, and 
spent the greater part of every day in pleas- 
ant amusements. At any hour one might see 
pleasure parties on the lakes and rivers, which 
were always covered with gilded boats, and 
barges with silken awnings, under which ta- 
bles were prepared for banquets. And every- 
where through the city were scattered invit- 
ing bowers, where the people sat when tired 
with walking, and watched the long proces- 
sion of elegant chariots, luxuriously fitted up 
with cushions of silks and velvet and drawn by 
richly caparisoned horses. And besides these 
every^-day amusements there were a great many 
days held sacred to the gods, when there were 
great feasts lasting ten or twelve days, and 
when ten thousand guests were entertained at 
a time. 



90 CABECA DE VACA. 



And the health and comfort of the people 
were provided for as well as their amusement, 
for there were elegant marble baths, and a num- 
ber of fine hospitals for the care of the sick, and 
a wonderful system of lighting the houses and 
palaces, so that the night seemed almost turned 
into day again, and a well-trained fire-depart- 
ment, always ready to act at any moment, and 
in fact, everything that could be done to make 
the people healthy and happy, and to protect 
their lives and property, was done. And all the 
children went to school in the public parks and 
gardens, for in that beautiful climate it never 
rained or was cold, and so there was no need 
of school-houses, and the boys and girls studied 
botany, and geology, and astronomy out of 
doors, and no doubt found it very pleasant. 

And Marco Polo, summing up his descrip- 
tion of the wonderful place, says, "And this 
city, for the excellence thereof, hath the name 
of the city of Heaven ; for in the world there is 
not the like, or a place in which are found so 
many pleasures, that a man would think he 
were in Paradise." 



CABECA DE VACA. 9I 

And all the other countries ruled by the 
great Khan were as rich as Mang-i. In Armenia 
were tens of thousands of beautiful cities filled 
with works of art, and out in the open country- 
were wonderful hot springs which cured all 
manner of diseases, and on the top of one of the 
high mountains Noah's ark still rested. And 
Cathay also held many rich towns. Among 
them, Cambalu, where the king had a marble 
palace with a roof of gold, as in Quinsai. And 
here, ten thousand soldiers guarded the palace, 
and the royal stables, wherein stood five thou- 
sand elephants. Great public roads led out 
from Cambalu to all the other cities in the em- 
pire, and along these roads were stationed post- 
houses where the king's messengers could find 
rest and refreshment, and where there were ele- 
gant apartments in which the king himself might 
rest when on his journey through the empire. 
All the king's errands were done by swift 
messengers, who ran from one post-house to 
another. These messengers wore belts from 
which hung gold and silver bells, and as soon 
as one station was reached, the letters and mes- 



92 • CABECA DE VACA. 



sages were given to another messenger and 
carried on to the next station, and so on, the 
tinkhng of the bells notifying the waiting mes- 
senger to be in readiness. And so, not a mo- 
ment was lost ; the messengers ran swiftly over 
the fine roads, scarcely noticing, in their haste, 
the beautiful scenery or the many works of 
art that adorned the way, which led through 
deep, shady forests, and wide, pleasant mead- 
ows, and over the numerous rivers and canals, 
spanned by lofty bridges built of rare stone and 
costly marble, and ornamented with rows of pol- 
ished columns and great stone lions, and curious- 
ly graven images of gods, and men, and animals. 
The roads extended from one great city to 
another, joining the most distant places to- 
gether, and the Khan spent a summer in one 
place and a winter in another, and every city 
tried to outshine the rest. In the summer 
months the Khan spent much of his time in 
his palace at Ciandu, which was as magnificent 
as Cambalu. Here the palace extended over 
sixteen miles, and ten thousand white horses 
stood in the king's stables. 



CABECA DE VACA. 93 

All this country was guarded by soldiers, 
who were like the sands of the sea for number, 
and the great generals were held in such esteem 
by the king that they were allowed to live in the 
most magnificent style. They all sat in golden 
chairs, and rode on milk-white horses, and trav- 
elled in gorgeous chariots, or in beautiful barges 
with silk and velvet awnings to keep off the 
heat of the sun. And so mighty was the Khan, 
and so great were his generals, that all the 
other countries round were very glad to live 
peaceably, and try in every way to please such 
a powerful monarch. The riches of this coun- 
try were beyond description ; mountains of 
turquoises reached to the clouds ; the lakes 
were full of pearls ; everywhere were gold and 
silver mines ; the rivers sparkled with gold, 
and the valleys were rich in diamonds. And 
everywhere, too, there was an abundance of 
choice fruits and nuts, and rare spices which 
grew in the gardens all the year round, so 
there was no lack of them summer or winter. 
And the people dressed in the richest stuffs, 
silk and velvet, and cloth of gold, embroid- 



94 CABECA DE VACA. 

ered with pearls and turquoises and dia- 
monds. 

And in Cipango, too, which lay east of 
Mangi, out in the sea, could be found the 
same magnificence. Here were palaces and 
temples, with roofs covered with golden plates 
and floors paved with gold and silver, and here 
also the people were rich and prosperous and 
happy. 

And when the news of all this wealth 
reached Europe it was at once determined to 
seek those far lands, and, if possible, to bring 
the gold and pearls and diamonds to Spain and 
France, and other European countries, and 
many expeditions were sent out ; but none of 
them ever reached Cathay, for all the American 
Continent and the great Pacific Ocean lay in 
the way, and the short passage to the East was 
never seen except in the dreams of some daring 
adventurers. But it was years and years before 
men gave up searching for it. France and 
Spain sent many men to look for it, and if they 
did not find Cathay they at least found many 
curious and wonderful things in America, and 



CABECA DE VACA. 95 

SO it came about, after a while, that America 
itself was pretty well known, and many at- 
tempts were made to settle it. Spain tried 
very hard to establish her colonies in the New 
World, and expedition after expedition was 
sent across the sea. With one of these expe- 
ditions sailed Cabeca de Vaca, a Spanish noble- 
man, and his account of the trials and misfor- 
tunes of the settlers shows how very difficult it 
was to establish a Spanish colony in America. 

The expedition was commanded by Narvaez, 
who landed his men at Tampa Bay, two days 
before Easter, 1528. They immediately deter- 
mined to leave the coast and go into the inte- 
rior of the country in search of gold, although 
De Vaca tried very hard to persuade the cap- 
tain to remain near the ships. But here the In- 
dians were not friendly, and the country farther 
away was said to be rich in gold; and so a short 
time after landing, a part of them started off to 
find the gold region which the Indians said was 
up in the Appalachian Mountains. But they 
found travelling through this strange country 
very hard work. Soon after their arrival at 



q6 cabeca de vaca. 

s 

Tampa Bay they had angered the Indians by 
burning the bodies of some chiefs that they had 
found in a Httle village, and the natives now- 
tried in every way to show their hatred. They 
refused to act as guides, and the Spaniards had 
to toil through swamps and rivers and forests, 
often losing their way and always in danger of 
attack from the Indians. At length their food 
gave out, and then they had to depend upon 
the fruit that could be found, and so at last, 
when they reached the little Indian village of 
Apalachen, they were quite heart-sick, and glad 
to find shelter and rest. They found no one in . 
the village excepting women and children ; all 
the men had fled to the woods. The village 
was built in the fnidst of a great swamp, and 
although it held some maize and other pro- 
visions, they soon found there was no gold 
there, and that all their long journey had been 
in vain. And then, too, the Indians kept lurk- 
ing around, and not only attacked them and 
burned the wigwams in which they were living, 
but made it very unsafp for the Spaniards to 
leave shelter at all. A man could not lead his 



CABECA DE VACA. 97 

horse to water without being" in danger of 
death, and as this kept growing worse and 
worse, they decided to leave Apalachen and go 
back to the sea. But many days and nights 
passed, and the sea seemed as far off as ever. 
They were without food, and had to depend 
upon getting maize from the Indians, and as this 
could only be done by force, many battles were 
fought and many lives were lost, and besides 
this trouble many fell sick and died from 
starvation and hardship. But, hard as it was 
to go on, it would have been harder still to re- 
main, for that would mean certain death at the 
hands of the Indians ; so they toiled on, discour- 
aged and hopeless, and at the end of fifteen 
days found themselves at last at the sea-coast. 
But it was not Tampa Bay, and no Spanish 
ships appeared in sight on which they might 
embark and sail back to Spain again. And the 
men, quite worn out, laid down on the sands in 
despair, and doubted if they should ever see 
their homes and friends aeain. 

But after a little while their courage came 
back, and they tried to think of some way of 



98 CABECA DE VACA. 

getting back to the ships or of reaching some 
Spanish settlement. It was impossible to think 
of travelling by land, and at length they de- 
cided that they would have to make boats and 
put out to sea with them. But how hard it 
seemed to undertake boat-making without tools 
and materials ! It was thought impossible at 
first to do more than make some large rafts, but 
by and by they discovered that their spurs and 
cross-bows and stirrups could be beaten out 
into nails and axes and saws and other tools, 
and that cordage could be made from the 
manes and tails of the horses, and that the 
seams could be caulked with palmetto fibre 
and pitched with pine rosin ; and, in fact, with 
time and patience, they managed to build five 
very good boats, living in the meantime on 
horse flesh and shell-fish and the maize which 
they could get from the Indians. When at last 
they were ready to start, forty of the men had 
already died of sickness and hunger besides 
those that had been killed by the Indians. 
They kept along the coast for some weeks, 
hoping to reach a Spanish settlement on the 



CABECA DE VACA. 99 



western coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but they 
could not find this place, and as it was not safe 
to land anywhere else on account of the Indi- 
ans, they had a most wretched voyage, suffer- 
ing from cold and hunger and drenched with 
rain, and finally separated from one another by 
a fearful storm which drove the boats far apart. 
De Vaca's boat was thrown upon an island, 
and so hard was it to get it off again into the 
sea that the men had to take off their clothing 
and wade into the water to dio- the boat out of 
the sand, and in doing this many of them lost 
their lives ; for no sooner did the boat touch the 
water than it was upset in the surf, and not 
only were some of the men drowned, but every- 
thing in the boat was lost, and De Vaca and 
his friends found themselves on this strange 
island with no boat or food or clothing. But, 
as it happened, the Indians on this island were 
kind and pitiful. They built fires to warm 
the sufferers and gave them food, and when 
after a few days, they were joined by some men 
from the other boats, they found that their suf- 
ferings had been no worse than their friends', 



lOO CABECA DE VACA. 

for all had met with the same hard fate. They 
stayed here many months, and one after an- 
other of the company died, until only De Vaca 
and three others were left. 

These four remained many years among the 
Indians, wandering- from one tribe to another, 
always trying to hear of some Spanish set- 
tlement where they might meet friends. Some- 
times the Indians were kind to them, but oftener 
they were treated very cruelly. Several times 
it happened that they were taken captive and 
held as slaves, and then their lives would have 
been most miserable, had it not been that the 
Indians grew to respect them because they 
knew so many things that they themselves 
were ignorant of. De Vaca and his compan- 
ions really thought that they had the power of 
curing disease by making the sign of the cross, 
or repeating pater nosters, and, as in some 
cases the sick got well, the Indians grew to rev- 
erence the white men and hold them in great 
esteem. But De Vaca and his friends could not 
grow fond enough of the Indians to be willing 
to remain among them. Their thoughts were al- 



CABECA DE VACA. lOI 

ways with the land of their birth, and so they 
pushed on through the unknown country, Hving 
on roots and nuts and the fruit of the prickly 
pear, suffering from the cold and heat, from 
which they had no clothing to protect them, and 
always in danger of death from hostile Indians. 
In this way they travelled through forests and 
swamps, across prairies and deserts, over moun- 
tains and rivers, for six years, and at last their 
courage was rewarded. They came one day to 
the sea, and they found there a Spanish settle- 
ment. Their countrymen, who had come there 
for gold and emeralds, received them with great 
kindness, and listened with wonder to the story 
of their wanderings. De Vaca learned that they 
were now on the coast of the Gulf of California, 
and that they had travelled from Tampa Bay, 
through the country bordering on the Gulf of 
Mexico, and through Mexico itself to the sea 
coast on the other side, having passed over 
more territory in North America than any other 
travellers had yet done. 

De Vaca and his three friends returned to 
Spain as speedily as possible, where they were 



I02 CABECA DE VACA. 

received as heroes of adventure, whose romantic 
story passed from place to place, and instead of 
discouraging others, only made them the more 
eager to visit those strange lands themselves, 
for every one felt sure that if he had been in De 
Vaca's place he would surely have discovered 
the gold and silver and precious stones that 
were supposed to be hidden away in the ever- 
glades of Florida, or in the mountains of Apa- 
lachen, or in the rivers and valleys of Mexico. 




THE MESSENGERS OF MONTEZUMA. 



CHAPTER XL 

HERNANDO CORTEZ AND THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 

High on the table-land of Mexico there 
was once a beautiful city which was built 
partly around the shores of a lake and partly 
on islands within the lake. It had broad 
streets and fine buildings, and its temples 
were among the most beautiful in the world, 
the principal one, that which was devoted to 
the worship of the sun, being ornamented 
with gold and silver and precious stones ; here 
and there were great public squares around 
which splendid temples were built, and in 
the centre of the city in one of these great 
squares stood the temple of the god of 
war. The people who lived in this city were 
Aztecs, a tribe of Indians very different from 
those of the. Atlantic coast. They worshipped 
the sun and the moon, and, above all, they 
worshipped the terrible god of war, in whose 



104 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 

honor they burned the bodies of the enemies 
they captured in battle. The temples were at- 
tended by priests, who were held in great honor 
by the people, and in every temple there were 
little boys who were being trained to the priest- 
hood. On great festival days the priests and 
boys and all the people would form a grand 
procession and march all around the city, sing- 
ing and playing on instruments. The lake on 
which the city was built was one of the finest 
in the world, and the Aztecs were fond of 
building floating gardens on its waters ; these 
gardens were very beautiful, with flowers of all 
kinds, and vegetables were also cultivated in 
them. The palaces of the king and nobles 
were built of stone and of great size, and very 
elegant, being ornamented sometimes with gold 
and silver. The Aztecs were a very powerful 
people, and all the nations around them were 
afraid of them and acknowledged the Aztec 
king as theirs ; and everywhere from the Pa- 
cific to the Gulf of Mexico were great roads 
leading from the city down to the coasts, so that 
the king could send messages at any time from 



HERNANDO CORTEZ. IO5 

one part of his kingdom to another ; all over 
the country outside the city were great fields, 
where cotton, corn, wheat, sugar, coffee, and 
other thinofs were raised. The Aztecs did not 
dress in skins, as did the Indians farther north, 
but they wove cotton into cloth and made gar- 
ments of that. They also had a written lan- 
guage and wrote their history down in books. 
The name of the king was Montezuma, and all 
his people loved and worshipped him as a god, 
and when he looked over the city and saw the 
turrets and spires of the palaces and temples 
glittering in the sunlight, and the floating 
gardens, filling the lakes with beauty and fra- 
grance, and the fields rich with harvest, and 
the green forests, stretching away to the base 
of the great volcano whose snowy peak shone 
in the golden light of the sun, he felt that his 
was, indeed, a great and fair kingdom, beautiful 
and strong and happy. 

But the riches of this great city had been 
heard of across the sea, and the Spaniards, as 
ever eager for gold, resolved to make its wealth 

their own. So an army was sent from Cuba to 

s* 



I06 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 

conquer Mexico, and Hernando Cortez was 
made its leader. Cortez was a brave soldier, 
but a cruel and treacherous man. In the year 
1 5 19 he landed his troops at Tabasco on the 
southern coast of Mexico; he found the natives 
prepared for war, but they were soon glad to 
fly from the Spaniards, leaving many of their 
number killed. Cortez then went on to Vera 
Cruz, where Montezuma had sent messengers 
to meet him ; these messengers brought with 
them magnificent presents of gold and jewels 
which they gave to the Spaniards, at the same 
time trying to persuade them to go away from 
their country. But Cortez would not go away ; 
he said he was going to the City of Mexico to 
see Montezuma himself, as the King of Spain 
had ordered him to do, and for fear his soldiers 
would not go with him, he burned all his ships 
so they could not go back to Cuba if they 
wanted to. 

The Aztecs returned to Montezuma and 
told him that the Spaniards were on their way 
to his city. Montezuma did not know what to 
do ; for although he was a good and kind king, 



HERNANDO CORTEZ. 107 

he was not a great soldier. He sent other 
messengers and more presents, and command- 
ed Cortez to go back, but Cortez pressed on. 
Now among the Aztecs there was a tradition 
that, hundreds of years before, their country- 
had been visited by a glorious stranger from 
the East, a child of the sun, who had taught 
them how to till the ground, and all the arts 
of peace and war ; and he lived with them 
many years, and they loved him and wor- 
shipped him as a god, and the stranger was 
very beautiful to look upon, with hair like the 
sunlight and eyes as bright as the stars, and 
his skin was as white as the snow which glis- 
tened on the tops of the volcanoes. And one 
day he called the Indians around him and told 
them that he must go away forever, but that 
some time in the years to come a race would 
come from the East, children of the sun like 
himself, and that they would demand the Aztec 
Kingdom for their own, and that it would do 
no good for the Indians to fight these stran- 
gers, for they were the children of the sun 
and could conquer all before them ; and so 



I08 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 

saying, the stranger from the East vanished 
from their sight, and they saw him no more, 
though they mourned for him many days ; for 
he had gone into the mysterious West, whence 
the sun goes at night, for all things that come 
from the East find a home at last in the land of 
the sunsetting, but save the sun himself, noth- 
ing ever comes back from that land, but all 
things remain forever hidden by the shadows 
which lie on its borders. 

And so when Montezuma heard that the 
Spaniards, who were faired-skinned and light, 
compared with the Indians, were resolved to 
come on to his city, he thought that perhaps 
they might be the children of the sun, and if so, 
it would be of no use to try and repel them ; and 
when at last Cortez came up to the city, he went 
out to meet him and gave him a courteous wel- 
come. 

The Spaniards were rejoiced when they saw 
the beautiful city, for they thought that its splen- 
did palaces and treasures would soon be theirs.. 
Montezuma led Cortez into the city and gave 
him a large and elegant building for his quar- 



HERNANDO CORTEZ. IO9 

ters, and to every soldier in the army magnifi- 
cent presents were made. The army was quar- 
tered in the great central square, near the 
temple of the god of war ; it was in the winter, 
and for a month Cortez remained quiet ; he and 
his soldiers were allowed to go about, and were 
even permitted to enter the temples and exam- 
ine the altars and shrines, where the Mexicans 
offered up human beings every day as sacrifices 
to their gods. But the thing that interested the 
Spanish general most were the vast treasures 
of gold and silver, the huge storehouses filled 
with provisions, and the great arsenals filled 
with bows and arrows. He saw that the Aztecs 
were well prepared for war, and began to grow 
a little alarmed for his own safety. He knew 
that by lifting his finger Montezuma could fill 
all the squares with armed soldiers, and prevent 
the Spaniards from leaving the city, and he 
knew also that the Indian warriors were no 
longer afraid of his men, as they were at first, 
when they thought them immortal ; so thinking 
over all these things, Cortez resolved upon a 
bold plan. He knew that if he could get pos- 



no HERNANDO CORTEZ. 

session of Montezuma the people would be 
afraid to make war on him ; so, one day, he 
asked Montezuma into his quarters, and then 
refused to let him go out again, saying that he 
would kill him if the people should attack the 
Spaniards. 

Cortez was now obliged to leave Mexico for 
a short time to oppose a force that had been 
sent aofainst him from Cuba. While he was 
gone, Alvarado, the general he left in com- 
mand, attacked the Mexicans one day when 
they were celebrating a great feast, and killed 
five hundred of their priests and leaders. The 
Aztecs became furious, and attacked the palace 
where Alvarado and his men were, and they 
would soon have conquered the Spaniards had 
not Cortez come back just in time. 

Cortez tried to make peace, but the Mexi- 
cans would not listen to him. In a few days 
the fighting began all over the city, and the 
streets were stained with the blood of tens of 
thousands. Then Cortez compelled Monte- 
zuma to go upon the top of the palace, in front 
of the great square, and ask his people to make 



HERNANDO CORTEZ. Ill 

peace with the Spaniards. The Aztecs wor- 
shipped Montezuma as a god, and when they 
saw him standing on the palace roof, they 
dropped their weapons on the ground, and ev- 
ery head was bowed with reverence. But when 
he asked them to make peace with the Span- 
iards, they grew very angry and immediately 
began fighting again. Montezuma was wounded 
twice by their arrows, which so alarmed the Az- 
tecs, that they stopped fighting again ; but soon 
the battle re-commenced, and in a few days 
Cortez was compelled to leave the city. In the 
meantime, Montezuma had died in the Spanish 
camp ; the Spaniards had treated him kindly to- 
ward the end, and had nursed his wounds, but he 
refused to take any food, and died at last from 
a broken heart. Cortez now saw that there 
would have to be a great battle fought, so he 
made ready his men. On the morning of the 
battle he looked out from his camp and saw the 
Mexican soldiers extending as far as the eye 
could reach ; he trembled when he saw this 
great army of men, knowing that his own troops 
were few, but he resolved to conquer or die. 



112 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 

Without giving his men time to think, he began 
to attack the enemy ; at first the Aztecs gave 
way, but others came in their stead, for the 
whole valley was lined with armed Indians. The 
Spaniards gave up hope, and prepared to die, 
but just then, Cortez advanced to the Mexican 
standard-bearer and snatched the sacred stand- 
ard from his hand. The Mexicans believed that 
on this standard depended the fate of every bat- 
tle, and that if it were captured, there was no 
use in fighting any longer. Cortez knew this, 
and when they saw it in his hands, they threw 
down their arms and fled to the mountains, and 
thus the Spaniards won the battle. 

And so Cortez conquered Mexico, and all its 
vast wealth passed into the hands of the Span- 
iards ; its fertile valleys and rich plains, its 
beautiful capital and prosperous villages, its 
great mines of gold and silver, its thousands 
and thousands of inhabitants, all became the 
property of the King of Spain, a man who 
cared nothing for the conquered people, but 
thought only of the great wealth that had so 
unjustly become his. The gold and silver 



HERNANDO CORTEZ. II3 

mines of Mexico were then the richest in the 
world, and the conquered Aztecs were obhged 
to work in these mines as slaves, but the gold 
and silver was no longer used to ornament 
their temples and palaces ; it was sent across 
the sea to Spain, who thought more of gold 
than she did of honor or justice. 

It was in the year 1521 that Cortez con- 
quered Mexico, and for three hundred years it 
was ruled by Spain ; at the end of that time it 
became again free. The Mexicans of to-day 
are partly Indians and partly Spanish in race, 
but there are some who remember with pride 
that they are the descendants of the ancient 
Aztecs, and they point to the ruins of the great 
temples, which may still be seen in the new Cap- 
ital, as an instance of the wealth and power of 
their nation when the Aztecs ruled from ocean 
to gulf, and when from mountain peak to lowest 
valley every heart beat with pride in thinking of 
the glory of the kingdom which Montezuma 
called his own. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

Francisco Pizarro was a little Spanish 
boy who was very poor and very miserable. 
Living in a beautiful valley where the climate 
was agreeable, and where one might gather 
grapes and chestnuts and oranges at will, it 
might have been quite possible for him to be 
poor and happy, too, but there were many 
things about Francisco's lot that were harder 
to bear than poverty. Many other children 
dwelt in this pleasant valley, some of them as 
poor and wretched and ragged as Francisco, 
and others who were rich and well clothed and 
happy. Not far from the little hut that was 
Francisco's home was a stately castle, where a 
great duke lived, and the little boy would often 
go and stand by the stone wall that enclosed 
the grounds, and wonder how it would seem to 
live in that splendid mansion, and be allowed 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. II5 

to walk in its beautiful parks. Once in a while, 
when the gates were opened to let in a crowd 
of gaily-dressed visitors, or when the duke, at 
the head of a laughing party, went forth on a 
merry hunting expedition, he would catch a 
glimpse of the velvet lawns and shady trees and 
gorgeous flowers, and could see children dressed 
in dainty garments, and sometimes wearing beau- 
tiful jewels, playing on the grass or swinging 
under the trees. And Francisco would look 
and look with eyes big with wonder till the gay 
party had passed and the gates swung back in 
his face, and he was left out there in the dusty 
road alone. And then he would turn and watch 
the hunting party until the brilliant scene faded 
quite away in the distance, and he was once 
more left alone. It always seemed to him that 
no matter how gay or happy this bit of the 
world might seem, it always ended in his being 
left outside of that gray stone wall, alone and 
hungry and ragged, and that in fact these 
glimpses of another, happier life were only after 
all just like his dreams, which were sure to fade 
away when morning came. He could not help 



Il6 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

sighing sometimes and wishing that the dream 
would go on for him just as it did for the other 
children inside the stone wall. Once it did go 
on just a moment or two, for one day as he 
stood dejectedly by the gates, they opened, and 
a beautiful child came out who spoke to him 
kindly. He was dressed in a suit of velvet, and 
his long hair fell in curls over his shoulders, and 
in his cap was a little pearl ornament which 
fastened a bird's wing. And Francisco, as he 
looked at the wing, thought he had never in his 
life seen anything so wonderful, for the feath- 
ers were soft like velvet, but glowed and burned 
in the sunlight like the rubies in the ring on the 
child's hand. 

He raised his hand and touched the lovely 
object, and the wearer of the cap, being as 
kind-hearted as he was beautiful, began to tell 
Francisco the story of the wing — how it had 
been given to him by a great soldier, who had 
brought it from a long way off, farther than he 
himself had ever been ; farther than the moun- 
tains or the sea even. 

Francisco wondered at this, and when the 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU, 11/ 

child passed on he stood still thinking a long 
time ; it seemed so strange to hear that there 
were other places and countries besides this quiet 
little valley where he had always lived. Then 
he went back to his work, disagreeable work 
it was, very, for he had to watch the swine and 
keep them -from straying off; but that night his 
dreams were brighter than ever, for he dreamed 
that he had visited those strancre lands that he 
had heard of from the child, and that he had 
found enouQfh treasures there to make him rich 
and o-reat. The morninof came and the dream 
was gone, but it left behind a thought that did 
not go away. And always after the boy Fran- 
cisco carried with him the resolve to make his 
dream come true. But for many years there 
seemed no hope of anything beyond the mean 
life he was living, and sometimes he quite de- 
spaired. He was very proud and ambitious, 
too, and his lowly lot in life seemed all the more 
bitter when he compared it with that of the 
more fortunate boys who had good comfortable 
homes and could go to school. He thought 
that he should have a good home and go to 



Il8 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

school too, for his father was a man of wealth 
and of good birth ; but his mother was only a 
peasant, and it was with her he had always 
lived, and the poor woman could not afford to 
bring up her child in comfort, or even to have 
him taught to read and write. And so Fran- 
cisco grew to be a big boy, and still watched the 
pigs from morning till night, and still sighed 
restlessly to get away from his distasteful life, 
and find one fairer and nobler. 

One day, when he was quite a big lad, a 
stranger came to the little valley ; he was an 
old, weather-beaten sailor, and had sailed across 
distant seas and journeyed through many 
strange lands, and at night, when the peasant 
boys were through with their day's work, they 
all eathered around him and listened to his tales 
of the great world that lay beyond the moun- 
tains that shut in their quiet little valley, just as 
the stone wall shut in the duke's palace. 

Francisco listened with the others, but his 
heart beat wildly, for, as the old man talked, it 
seemed that he was again in the land of his 
dreams. And no wonder, for the sailor's stories 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. I I9 

were very wonderful and quite true, for he was 
one of the men that sailed across the ocean with 
Columbus on his first great voyage. He had 
seen with his own eyes that far-off, beautiful 
land, where the air was always soft as the 
spring in the valleys, and where the flowers 
bloomed forever, and the trees bore delicious 
fruits ; he had heard the reports of its moun- 
tains of gold and mines of precious stones, and 
rivers whose waves tossed gleaming pearls upon 
the beach. And it was all true, and all this 
wealth and beauty lay there waiting for bold 
hearts and brave hands to claim and keep, for 
the people of that far country were only poor 
savaofes, knowinsf nothincr of the value of the 
gold and gems they wore, and were so ignorant 
that they thought the Spaniards were the chil- 
dren of some great god, and were ready to fall 
down and worship their beauty and strength 
and courage. 

And the old man talked till the stars came 
out, and the moon had climbed far up the sky, 
for never before had there been told such won- 
derful news as this, for all the stories of the fab- 



120 riZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

ulcus wealth of the East had come true at last, 
and no one could doubt any more. By and by, 
as the days passed, the sailor told other stories 
of other countries, where the soldiers of Spain 
were winning great victories, and although his 
words were forgotten by most of the boys, yet 
Francisco and one or two others thought of 
them often and pondered over them, and thought 
what a fine thing it must be to be a soldier 
fighting for honor and glory. And as time 
went on they talked more and more about this, 
and at last they resolved to leave their old mis- 
erable life behind them forever, and go out into 
the world and seek their fortune. But they had 
to be very careful and secret, for they meant 
to run away ; the summer was gone and the 
autumn had come to the valley before the three 
boys found a chance to carry out their plan, 
and one morning when Francisco and his friends 
were called to go to their distasteful work, they 
did not answer, for they were far on their way 
up the mountains, and had said farewell to the 
valley forever. It was pleasant travelling 
through the hospitable country roads, and after 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 121 



they had gone so far that they had no fear of 
being overtaken, they went on merrily enough. 
Francisco's heart was the Hghtest and bravest. 
He had most detested his old life, and now he 
most rejoiced that it was past. 

So the boys journeyed on and crossed 
the mountains and passed through the fertile 
valleys and then climbed other mountains, and 
everywhere the kind country folk gave them 
food and drink and shelter, and the young 
travellers thought they had never had grapes 
and chestnuts and goat's milk taste as good be- 
fore, as they ate and drank under the trees by 
the road-side or in some peasant's cottage ; 
and by and by the journey was over, and they 
were in Seville. And now the runav/ays found 
they were out in the world indeed. No one in 
all that great, splendid city cared in the least 
whether they lived or died, whether they suf- 
fered from hunger or thirst, or whether they 
had a place to lay their heads at night. But 
they kept brave hearts, got what they could to 
eat, slept where they could at night, and spent 
the days in wandering through the streets and 



122 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

getting acquainted with the hfe of a great city. 
And although they were not sure where bread 
and cheese were to come from and where they 
were to He down at night, still the wonderful 
sights of this new life, the magnificent houses, 
splendid palaces, costly dresses, and, above all, 
the companies of mounted soldiers that were con- 
tinually parading the streets, all drove thoughts 
of home from their minds, and they did not re- 
gret in the least that they had exchanged the 
village of Truxillo for the glitter and show of 
Seville. 

In a few days Francisco decided that he 
would join the army and go to Italy, where- 
the Spaniards were then fighting, and as the 
king wanted all the soldiers he could get, and 
as he was large and well developed for his age, 
he had no trouble in enlisting in one of the 
regiments, and when he put on the gaudy uni- 
form and began to live in camp, he felt, indeed, 
that his old life was over and that Francisco 
Pizarro was quite a different person from the 
ragged little urchin that tended pigs at Trux- 
illo. 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 23 



But there was one sad thing about it, and 
that was the parting from his two friends, for 
Pizarro's regiment sailed very soon for Italy, 
and it was with great sorrow that he said fare- 
well to the two companions who had shared the 
excitement and danger of his escape from home. 
However, the noise of war soon drove sad 
thoughts from his mind, and so eagerly did he 
enter into his new life that he soon became one 
of the best soldiers in the regiment, and so re- 
nowned for bravery that by the time the war 
was over and the army ready to return to Spain 
he had been made a lieutenant. This only made 
him more ambitious, and as he found life in the 
city very stupid for the next few years, because 
there was no fighting to be done, he was very 
glad when he heard one day that a great expe- 
dition was to be sent out to America, and that 
any one who was brave and daring might join 
it and so have a chance of gaining riches and 
fame. He hastened to Cadiz at once, and as 
his courage and bravery were well known, had 
no trouble in being made one of the company ; 
and when, in a few days, the ships left Cadiz 



124 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

and started on their long voyage across the At- 
lantic, Pizarro thought with great joy that he was 
on his way to those strange lands at last, and 
that perhaps his old dreams might come true. 

The voyage was a stormy one, but at last 
they came safely to Hispaniola, and there Pi- 
zarro learned, what all newly-arrived Spaniards 
were not slow to learn, that of all restless, rov- 
ing lives, those of Spanish adventurers were 
the most so. They were never content to re- 
main in one place, but went hither and thither 
in their mad search for gold, always hoping to 
find something better, and always ready to risk 
their lives for the sake of bettering their for- 
tunes. And so, no sooner had Pizarro become 
a little acquainted with the country at Hispani- 
ola than he straightway caught the mad fever 
for moving on to some new place ; and as there 
were constant reports of the wealth of the coun- 
tries of Central America and Mexico, he de- 
cided that those places would suit him better 
than Hispaniola, and he accepted an offer to 
go to Darien, meaning to explore the country 
and see for himself what riches it contained. 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 125 

At that time Balboa was also living in Da- 
rien, and Pizarro was one of the company who 
went with him across the isthmus to discover 
the Pacific. In this expedition Pizarro noted 
the country well, and was rejoiced to see the 
gold and gems which were bestowed upon him 
by the friendly chiefs, and when he returned to 
Darien he was very willing to become the leader 
of an expedition that the governor of the colony 
was fitting out, to conquer lands on the Pacific. 
The party reached the ocean in safety, and 
Pizarro immediately resolved to get all the 
treasure he could before any other Spaniards 
should have a chance to come there. On his 
former visit he had heard from the natives that 
there were great quantities of pearls to be found 
on some islands lying out from the land, and 
now he at once called part of his men together, 
and leaving the rest on the shore, started out in 
canoes to reach the islands. The sea was 
heavy, and the canoes were capsized more than 
once, but they reached the islands at last, only 
to find that the natives were thronging the 
beach ready to drive them off as quickly as they 



126 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

should land. But Pizarro was not to be driven 
back, and after a hard fight, the Indians re- 
treated to the woods and left the Spaniards in 
peace. They began their search for pearls at 
once, and found them in such quantities that 
Pizarro named the spot the " Isle of Pearls," 
and after gathering a great store of these pre- 
cious gems, and securing also a great deal of 
o-old, he went back to Darien with his treasures 
and reported that the country was as rich as 
Cathay or Mexico. 

The governor of Darien, on hearing this 
news, thought it would be a very good plan to 
move his capital from Darien across the isthmus 
so that he would be nearer the riches of the land, 
and in a short time the greater part of the col- 
ony were living in Panama, and eagerly watch- 
ing for opportunities of gathering gold and 
gems. 

Here Pizarro lived like a great man. He 
had a fine house and a long train of Indian ser- 
vants, and flocks, and fields, and was looked 
upon as a rich man and a brave soldier. But 
he was not quite satisfied. Often, as he walked 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 12/ 

in his broad fields, he would look toward the 
north, where lay the land of Montezuma, the 
land that Cortez had conquered, thus winning 
for himself lasting honor and glory, besides 
great wealth, greater than Pizarro could ever 
expect to gain in his quiet home in Panama. 
And then he sometimes looked southward, too, 
and wondered what lay there beyond the blue, 
misty horizon. It could not be possible, he 
thought, that Cortez and Balboa had made 
all the great discoveries ; perhaps there were 
other lands away there in the south as rich 
and great as Mexico. Perhaps it might be 
his good fortune some day to discover an em- 
pire as boundless and wonderful as that of 
Montezuma. So he pondered, day after day, 
over what the future might bring, and al- 
ways listened eagerly for tales of the lands 
to the southward, where lay the great ocean 
that Balboa had discovered. And one day a 
visitor came to his home, who told him just 
what he wanted to hear, that there zvas a very 
great and powerful empire far south of Panama, 
and that with a good band of resolute soldiers, 



128 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

and a brave leader, it might be easily conquered. 
And as Pizarro listened he resolved that he 
would be the leader if he could only find men 
enough to follow him on his perilous under- 
taking. 

Very wonderful things did the traveller tell 
of this new country, for a very wonderful coun- 
try it was, and as Pizarro heard the accounts 
of its wealth and prosperity, it seemed to him 
that the old stories of Cathay and the realms of 
Kublai Khan were actually true. And, indeed, 
this country that lay to the south, protected on 
one side by the ocean, and on the other by its 
giant, snow-capped mountains, was more like 
the old dreams of Cathay than any land that 
had yet been seen by the Europeans. 

The empire of Peru, like that of the Aztecs, 
had existed for hundreds and hundreds of years, 
and its ruler, the mighty Inca, like the great 
Montezuma, was a descendant of the Sun. He 
•was therefore held in great reverence by his 
subjects, as a child of their great god. For the 
sun was the principal deity of the Peruvians. 
In his honor were built the most splendid tern- 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 29 

pies that the world has ever seen. In Cuzco, 
the capital of Peru, was a temple of the sun that 
was so magnificent it was called the " Place 
of Gold." The walls were covered with solid 
plates of burnished gold, and on one side was 
the image of the sun, made of purest gold, its 
face glittering with diamonds and emeralds and 
rubies, and the long golden rays reaching from 
the ceiling to the floor. 

In Cuzco, also, was the Temple of the Moon, 
adorned with silver, and with an image repre- 
senting the goddess of night ; and all the ser- 
vice of the temples was of the purest gold and 
silver, curiously wrought and beaten, and the 
great altars were ornamented with great golden 
lilies set with pearls and diamonds, and the 
lamps were brilliant with pendant emeralds and 
rubies and sapphires. 

The Peruvian empire extended from Cuzco 
to Quito, and everywhere throughout the do- 
minion were splendid cities, in which were great 
palaces and temples, all glittering with gold and 
silver, and all showing the wealth and power of 
the Inca^ These cities were connected by great 



I30 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

public roads that led from one end of the empire 
to the other, and it is said that in no country in 
the world were there such fine highways as 
those in Peru. The roads were very wide and 
covered with a substance that hardened and be- 
came very smooth and even, so the messengers 
could run easily, and on either side were mass- 
ive walls, built of great blocks of stone, while 
inside thenvalls ran clear streams of water, bor- 
dered with beautiful trees. The principal road 
ran from Cuzco to Quito, straight on through 
mountains which had been cut away, and over 
rocky precipices, across which suspension 
bridges were thrown, and through valleys that 
had been filled up to the level with lime and 
stones. A day's journey apart on the roads 
stood the king's palaces, beautifully furnished 
and fitted up with everything that a traveller 
might need, and so pleasant was travelling in 
this country that a long journey seemed only a 
succession of pleasant trips through delightful 
forests and amid grand mountain scenery. And 
all day long, up and down these roads, passed 
the servants of the Inca, carrying messages and 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 131 

burdens from one part of the empire to the 
other, and all over the country the people were 
busy and happy, working for the emperor whom 
they loved and revered. There were no poor 
people in Peru, for the Inca owned all the land 
and mines and palaces, and he gave to each 
family enough to support them comfortably, 
while they in return worked for him, and for the 
weak and sick, who could not care for them- 
selves. The men worked in the gold and silver 
mines, and on the public roads, and built the 
temples and palaces, and tilled the fields, and 
raised the sheep, the wool from which was spun 
and woven by the women into beautiful cloth, 
dyed with rare colors, and interwoven some- 
times with threads of gold and silver. And al- 
though some of the laws were very strict, yet 
for the most part they were just and merciful ; 
and so the whole empire seemed liked one great 
family, of which the Inca was the loved and 
trusted head. 

On great festival days the great public 
squares in the cities were thronged with the 
people who came in from the country to take 



132 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

part in the celebration. And there were many 
festival days during the year, and so the Peru- 
vians had a great deal of pleasure, for on a 
holiday no one ever thought of working. The 
reason of this was that most of the festivals 
were of a religious nature, and it would have 
been considered a sin not to observe them. 
The most splendid festival of all the year was 
the Feast of the Sun. This was always held 
at Cuzco, and from every part of the empire 
the people came flocking to the capital, and for 
days and days before, the roads were filled with 
travellers on their way to the great feast. The 
celebration began with the dawn, and as soon 
as it became light the inhabitants began to 
pour into the great central square, or to throng 
the balconies and housetops which overlooked it. 
All the city was gorgeously decorated, flags and 
banners floated from the columns and roofs of 
the temples and palaces, and rich cloths of daz- 
zling hues, embroidered in gold and silver and 
precious stones, hung from the windows and 
balconies, while everywhere were great urns of 
gold and silver and stone, filled with flowers. 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 33 



and rare shrubs and plants brought from the 
surrounding country. On this day the Inca 
appeared in his greatest glory and state. Clad 
in a robe of the softest and most beautiful ma- 
terial, embroidered with leaves and flowers of 
gold, and with a collar of emeralds around his 
neck, wearing on his head a glittering dia- 
dem from which floated the gorgeous plumes of 
some rare tropical bird, he appeared in the 
midst of his people seated on a throne of solid 
gold, and surrounded by all his great nobles, 
whose magnificent appearance added still more 
glory to his own. His litter was borne by cour- 
tiers wearing coronets of gold and silver, and 
near him sat the principal men of his kingdom, 
whose litters were carried by soldiers dressed 
in rich and showy uniforms. Behind the Inca 
and his nobles came the soldiers, wearing hel- 
mets of skin studded with jewels, and clothed 
in white or blue tunics, the ofificers bearing 
the royal standards of the country, which were 
embroidered with gold and silver, and close be- 
side the Inca walked a standard-bearer holding 
the imperial banner, upon which was wrought 



134 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

a rainbow, the symbol of royalty; and as the 
great procession advanced into the square amid 
waving of banners and nodding plumes and to 
the sound of warlike music, the people all fell 
on their knees and bowed their heads and paid 
homage to the Inca, the child of the sun. And 
then all was silent, for they awaited the coming 
of the god whose day they celebrated, but as 
soon as his first rays touched the snowy heights 
of the lofty Cordilleras, a great shout of joy 
went up from the multitude, who welcomed with 
hymns of praise the coming of the mighty god. 
Then the Inca would rise from his throne, and 
raising high in the air a golden, jewelled goblet, 
pour out a libation to the sun, after which the 
procession wound slowly to the temple, where 
sacrifices were offered of sheep and birds and 
flowers, and sometimes, when there had been a 
great victory in battle, even young maidens and 
beautiful children were offered up, and then 
after many other ceremonies the people left the 
temples and passed the rest of the day in sing- 
ing and eating and drinking, and all kinds of 
merry-making. There were many other festival 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 35 

days, but the Feast of the Sun was the great- 
est, and was held in summer when the days 
were longest and the god remained for many 
hours above the horizon. 

And it was these happy and contented Peru- 
vians that Pizarro had determined to conquer, 
and it was their beautiful country that he meant 
to take possession of But much as he desired 
to do this, it would have been impossible with- 
out* the aid of two good friends, who helped 
him with money and influence. One of these 
friends was a bold cavalier by the name of Al- 
magro ; the other was a very rich priest named 
Luque ; and it was agreed between the three 
that Almagro should get the ships ready and 
enlist the men, that Luque should furnish the 
money, and that Pizarro should command the 
expedition and conquer Peru, and then divide 
the riches of the conquered country equally be- 
tween his two partners. By this arrangement 
the hardest part of the work fell to Pizarro ; 
but he did not mind that at all, and, in fact, 
would have been dissatisfied had it been other- 
wise, while, on the contrary, Almagro and 



136 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU". 

Luque were equally willing to remain in Pana- 
ma ; and so everybody was satisfied, and the 
preparations began at once. 

Only the bravest and strongest men were 
chosen, and when the little company assembled, 
they only numbered one hundred and twelve ; 
but this did not discourage Pizarro, for he was 
determined to be discouraged at nothing, and on 
the 17th of November, 1524, after an imposing 
service in the cathedral, where Luque blessed 
the commander and his soldiers, and bade them 
God-speed, the little fleet sailed from Panama 
and started southwest on its voyage of con- 
quest. 

But many misfortunes happened to Pizarro 
before he saw the coast of Peru. The way 
was new and strange, and he did not know 
how far off Peru was, and he landed many 
times along the coast in hope of finding a path 
that would lead to the great empire, but found 
instead only marshes and deserts and tangled 
underbrush, where his men were bitten by 
poisonous serpents, and where they suffered 
from hunger and thirst and disease ; and years 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 3/ 

passed, and all that he knew of the coveted 
land he heard from some Indians dwelllnor 
along the coast, who wore heavy golden orna- 
ments, and said that a great and rich country- 
lay back from the sea, governed by a mighty 
ruler. But this news only made Pizarro more 
eager than ever to carry out his plan. Al- 
magro had come from Panama with men and 
provisions, or long before the whole party 
would have died of hunger and disease, and 
then Pizarro sent him back for more men, feel- 
ing sure, from a visit that he had paid to an In- 
dian village near the coast, that he was near 
Peru ; but the Governor of Panama refused to 
let Almagro return, and instead sent an order 
for Pizarro and his party to come back, as he 
would no longer allow them to risk money and 
life in an undertaking that promised nothing 
but failure. It was three years since Pizarro 
had first sailed from Panama. Many of his 
men had died, while the rest had suffered cruel- 
ly from hunger and exposure, and when they 
heard that the governor had ordered them to 
return home they were very willing to do so, 



138 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

and were glad enough to give up the idea of 
conquering Peru. But Pizarro himself would 
not give up. He was angry and indignant that 
the governor should command him to give up 
his plan at the very moment that success seemed 
certain, and he said that he would stay in spite 
of the governor's orders. Then he drew a line 
in the sand and stepped across it, and said that 
all the men who were willing to stay with him 
and go on to Peru should step across the line, 
too. At first no one moved ; the danger seemed 
so great and the thought of home so pleasant ; 
but at last, Luiz, the pilot, who had always 
trusted in Pizarro's luck, stepped across the 
line, and others followed until thirteen were 
standing by Pizarro's side. They were few in 
number, but their hearts were brave, and the 
bold leader knew that their courage was equal 
to his own. 

Then the rest of the company returned home 
to Panama, and Pizarro and his little band were 
left alone on the Island of Gallo without even 
a ship to take them on their journey. The island 
was not fit to stay upon, as it offered neither 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 39 

food, nor shelter from the frequent storms 
that burst over it, and Pizarro thought the 
better plan would be to leave it at once. So 
he gave orders for the men to build a raft, and 
in a few hours they had finished a large, strong 
one, upon which they placed their arms and 
stores, and then stepping cheerfully upon it 
themselves, pushed away from the island out 
into the sea. A few days' sailing in this way 
brought them to another island, larger and 
pleasanter than the Island of Gallo, and here Pi- 
zarro decided to land and wait for the arrival of 
the ships which he knew Almagro would send 
to his aid. The Indians were friendly, and the 
island was well watered with clear, running 
streams. The men built huts of logfs and bark 
beside one of these pleasant streams, and for a 
time they were very comfortable. Wild cocoa- 
nuts, pheasants, and rabbits were abundant, 
and furnished strengthening food, and if the 
pleasant weather had continued they would 
have been quite content with their situation ; 
but, after a few weeks, tempests began to blow 
over the island, beating down their huts and 



140 riZARKO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

drenching the men to the skin. And even when 
it did not rain they suffered so much from the 
intense heat of the sun and from the swarms of 
mosquitoes and other poisonous insects, that 
they were almost in despair, when, after seven 
months of waiting, the ship that Almagro sent 
appeared in sight. The vessel brought pro- 
visions, but no soldiers, for those the governor 
refused to send, and so, without waiting for 
further help, Pizarro started with the ship and 
eleven of his brave companions, and with a fear- 
less heart turned southward ajjain. 

In three weeks he reached the Gulf of Guay- 
aquil which washes the shores of a lovely and 
fertile country, and pointing across the waters, 
the Indian interpreters that Pizarro had brought 
from the North, told him that there lay a part 
of the great empire of Peru, which he had so 
long been seeking. Here he found, the next 
morning, a large and prosperous town, very 
different from any he had yet seen on the South 
American coast. This town, the name of which 
was Tumbez, was within the Inca's dominions, 
and was therefore as fine and wealthy as many 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 14I 

of those farther from the coast. Pizarro was 
surprised to see such magnificent temples and 
palaces, such fine houses and well-kept roads, 
and, above all, such intelligent and fine-looking 
people. They came fiocking down to the shore 
to see the curious ship that the strangers had 
come in, and the Spaniards noticed that they 
wore garments of finely woven material, and 
were adorned with rings, bracelets, and chains 
of gold, and wore large and brilliant gems in 
their ears. Pizarro made friends with the In- 
dians by means of his interpreters, and sent a 
message to the o-overnor of the town, askine 
for provisions and for leave for one of his men 
to visit the town. 

Both of these wishes were granted ; the gov- 
ernor sent immediately a large store of ban- 
anas, pineapples, and other fruits, besides 
meats and fish, with permission to Pizarro to 
send one of his men to visit the town. The 
governor also sent one of the chief men to wel- 
come the strangers, and thus Pizarro saw for 
the first time one of the nobles of the empire he 
had come to conquer. He saw at once that 



142 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

these people were very different from the sav- 
ages of the West Indies, or Atlantic coast, and 
that this courteous stranger, with his noble 
bearing and rich dress, belonged to a far higher 
race than the half-clothed Indians of Panama. 
So he resolved to be as friendly as possible with 
these people, and not let them imagine for a 
moment that he had come on a hostile errand. 
He received the nobleman very politely and in- 
vited him to dinner, and on his departure, gave 
him handsome presents. But the next morning, 
when the Spaniard Molino went on shore, 
Pizarro told him to notice carefully everything 
about the town, its size and wealth and means 
of defence, for he was more determined than 
ever to be called the Conqueror of Peru. 

Molino was accompanied by a negro servant 
who carried some presents for the governor, 
and as the Indians had never seen a negro be- 
fore, they looked at him very curiously, and tried 
to rub the black off with their fingers. And 
they also looked very curiously at the white 
man, for he was as strange to them as the ne- 
gro ; and they thought that the people from be- 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 143 

yond the sea, Ayith their white skin and fair hair, 
must belonof to a fjreat and wonderful race. 
MoHno was well received by the governor, 
whom he found living' in a fine mansion, guarded 
by soldiers in handsome uniforms, and attended 
by servants in livery, who served his meals 
upon golden dishes. Everywhere the Spaniard 
saw riches and prosperity, and his account of 
the splendid temples and palaces made Pizarro's 
heart beat high with hope. The next day he 
sent another Spaniard, Candia, to visit the town, 
and his report was as satisfactory as that of 
Molino. Pizarro was satisfied that he had 
reached the empire of Peru at last, and taking a 
friendly farewell of the inhabitants of Lumbez, 
sailed alonsf down the coast to see still more of 
this marvellous country. Everywhere he landed 
he was delighted to find the country as rich and 
prosperous as at Tumbez, and at length turned 
his vessel homeward, well supplied with pro- 
visions for the voyage, and with a large quan- 
tity of gold and jewels, which he intended to 
show his friends in Panama in proof that he had 
really discovered the land of his dreams. Stop- 



144 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

ping at Tumbez again, he left Molino, and one 
or two more of his men there, and taking 
two of the inhabitants with him, sailed away, 
carrying the good wishes of the people with 
him, and with high hope of a speedy return. 

But on his arrival at Panama he found the 
governor still unwilling to let another fleet be 
fitted out for the conquest of Peru, and Alma- 
gro, and Luque, and Pizarro, after talking it 
over, decided that the best thing to do would 
be to get permission of the king himself, and 
then the governor could not hinder them. So 
Pizarro sailed off to Spain, which he reached 
safely after a quick voyage, and as his name 
was now well known in Spain, the emperor sent 
for him to come to court, so that he might hear 
his adventures. 

Spain was at that time the greatest country 
in the world; the emperor, Charles V., son of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, ruled over Spain, Ger- 
many, and the Netherlands ; a Spanish adven- 
turer had discovered the Pacific Ocean and 
added its shores and islands to the possessions 
of the mother country ; Cortez had conquered 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 145 

Mexico and made it a Spanish province, and 
everywhere the Spanish name was renowned 
for wealth and power ; and Pizarro, when he 
arrived at the court of Charles V., knew well 
that he would meet there some of the most 
famous soldiers and adventurers in the world, 
and he felt very proud of the honor done him, 
and rejoiced to think that in the future his own 
name would shine as brightly as those of the 
famous men he was about to meet. The em- 
peror received him kindly and listened atten- 
tively while he told of his visit to Peru and 
described its wealthy cities and intelligent in- 
habitants ; and when he added that the principal 
cities, which he had not seen, were even richer 
and finer than those near the coast, the emperor 
readily gave his consent to his returning there 
with ships and men and everything necessary 
for the conquest of such a great empire. And 
then Pizarro showed the king and his nobles 
the chests of gold, and caskets of precious 
stones, and beautifully dyed and woven cloths, 
and the llamas and Indians he had brought with 
him, and they all exclaimed in wonder at the 



146 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

^ -i 

sight, and Cortez said that just such' riches had 
he found in Mexico, and doubted not that this 
new land was as wealthy as the country of Mon- 
tezuma. And so no time was lost in fitting out 
a fleet, and while this was being done Pizarro 
took the time to ^o to Truxillo and see his old 
home again. He found all the country people 
ready to welcome him and do him honor, for he 

ft 

was known throughout Spain as a bold soldier 
and adventurer, and he entered his old village 
with very different feelings from those he had 
when he ran away, barefoot and ragged, some 
thirty years before. The old castle was still there, 
and little peasant boys still watched the pigs out 
in the fields ; but with him all was different. 

His father and mother were dead, and his 
four younger brothers were very desirous of 
going to America with him and seeking their 
fortunes in that wonderful country; and as he 
consented to this they all went with him to 
Seville, where the fleet was being fitted out, 
and when the ships started across the Atlantic 
the bold commander knew that he had four 
men, at least, that he could trust to the end, and 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 14/ 

who would never desert him, no matter how 
hard his fortune might be. 

Panama .was reached without any mishap, 
and then all was bustle and confusion until ships 
and men were ready for the start. Three ves- 
sels were bought, and with about one hundred 
and eighty soldiers, some thirty horses, and a 
good supply of arms and ammunition, the little 
fleet was at last ready, and after a solemn reli- 
gious service in the cathedral the company em- 
barked, and Pizarro found himself at last on his 
way to conquer Peru. 

It was in the winter of 1531, seven years 
since the time of his first voyage to the South ; 
then he was ignorant of the country and its 
dangers, but now he knew the coast, years of 
experience had taught him how to overcome 
its dangers, and above all, he had friends in 
the inhabitants of Tumbez, who would welcome 
him gladly, and who were ready to believe that 
he was as great and powerful as he wished 
them to think. It did not trouble him at all 
that he meant to repay their kindness and trust 
with treachery and murder. 



148 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

In two weeks they came to a pleasant land- 
ing-place some distance north of Tumbez, and 
after sending the ships back to Panama they 
began marching southward. The way was 
often difficult, and they had to cross rivers and 
pass through swamps and thickets, but Pizarro 
always led them on, cheering his men and hop- 
ing for better things. On their way they passed 
an Indian village, which they captured without 
resistance from the natives, who fled in dismay 
from the sight and sound of the guns ; here 
they found a great- many large emeralds, as 
well as much gold and silver, and a good store 
of corn and other food, and after plundering 
the village they went on with light hearts, 
cheered with the prospect of still greater wealth 
and good fortune in the near future. The char- 
acter of the country now changed and they 
found themselves passing through beautiful 
groves, and over roads bordered with trees 
bearing delicious fruits ; and so they went pleas- 
antly along until they reached the gulf of 
Quayaquil and saw once more the domes and 
towers of Tumbez. But now Pizarro did not 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 49 

come as a friend, but as a foe, and his only- 
thought was to take possession of Tumbez and 
rob it of its wealth. There was a tribe of In- 
dians living on the island of Puna, just opposite 
Tumbez, who were bitter enemies of the peo- 
ple of that city, and as soon as these Indians 
saw the arrival of the Spaniards on the other side 
of the bay, they seiit a party over to ask Pizarro 
and his followers to come over to the island and 
stay with them. Pizarro knew that these people 
were unfriendly to those of Tumbez, and he 
thought it would be'a good plan to make friends 
of them, so they would help him when he 
attacked the city ; so he accepted the chief's 
offer, and in a little while the Indians had built 
some large rafts upon which the whole party- 
was taken over to the island of Puna, whose 
chief stood on the shore to welcome them. 
Here they were given pleasant quarters and en- 
tertained with choice fruits and vegfetables, and 
very glad indeed were they to have this chance 
of resting after their long and weary march. 

But one day one of the Indian interpreters 
that Pizarro had brought with him came to 



I50 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

him and said that the natives of the island were 
planning- to attack him. This at once raised 
Pizarro's anger, and as several men that he 
sent around to spy upon the Indians came back 
and said that the story was true, he immediately 
ordered his men to fall upon the natives, and in 
a short time every village on the island was 
plundered by the Spaniards, and great numbers 
of the inhabitants slain. And then Pizarro de- 
cided to go at once to Tumbez ; so he sent the 
rafts ahead loaded with booty, and getting as 
many boats as he could, embarked for the main- 
land. 

But during all these days of fighting the 
people of Tumbez had made up their minds 
that the Spaniards had come back as foes in- 
stead of friends, and as soon as the rafts came 
to shore they seized the plunder and dragged 
the men to the woods and murdered them ; then, 
in great alarm lest they should suffer worse 
things at the hands of the Spaniards than the 
natives of Puna had, they gathered together all 
the valuables they could carry and fled to the 
woods, and when Pizarro came to Tumbez he 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 151 

found its streets deserted, its treasures carried 
off, and many of its handsome buildings utterly- 
destroyed. And so he was able to take posses- 
sion of the city without losing a single man in 
battle, and when after a few days his scouts 
came in bringing the runaway chief with them, 
Pizarro decided to pardon the chief for killing 
the Spaniards who had been on the rafts, and 
to let him collect his people again and live 
peaceably in his city as before. 

He did this because he intended to go at 
once to the capital of Peru, and he thought in 
case any disaster happened to his army it would 
be well to have the chief of Tumbez friendly to 
him. The chief was very glad to gather his 
people together again, and promised eternal 
friendship to Pizarro ; and so one bright day 
the Spanish army marched out of Tumbez and 
took its way toward Cuzco. 

Before leaving the coast, Pizarro had been 
joined by Hernando de Soto, the same bold 
cavalier who afterward spent so many weary 
years in trying to find on the shores of the Mis- 
sissippi an empire as rich as Mexico or Peru, 



152 riZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

and as he had brought with him soldiers and 
horses, he promised to be of great use to Piz- 
arro. Their way now led through pleasant 
valleys and thriving villages, and everywhere 
Pizarro found himself warmly greeted by the 
natives ; often in the larger towns the governors 
entertained him with splendid banquets, and 
many times he lodged in the very palaces that 
were prepared for the Inca's visits. Pizarro 
made friends with all the Indians they met, as 
he thought it best to leave no enemy between 
him and the coast, and so they marched com- 
fortably day after day, until they had nearly 
reached the lofty ranges of the Cordilleras. 
While stopping at one of the largest towns that 
they had yet seen, Pizarro heard that, some 
distance ahead, a large Peruvian army was col- 
lected. Fearing that he might be attacked if he 
went further, he sent De Soto on ahead to find 
out if the Inca meant to receive him as a friend. 
After many days De Soto returned to the camp 
accompanied by a Peruvian noble, a brother of 
the Inca, who came with a greeting from the 
emperor and some presents of fruits, corn, em- 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 53 

eralds, and vases of gold and silver. The noble 
bearing of the messenger and his splendid cos- 
tume and heavy ornaments of gold made a deep 
impression upon the mind of Pizarro, and he 
saw at once that in all his dealing with the Inca 
he would have to treat him with the respect 
due to his great rank and power ; so he received 
the messenger very courteously, and expressed 
great pleasure at seeing a brother of the great 
Inca. The messenger said that the Inca had 
sent him to Pizarro to say that he welcomed 
the Spaniards to his land and invited them to 
visit him at his camp. Pizarro replied that he 
would surely visit the Inca, and after receiving 
a present of a red cap and some glass beads, 
the nobleman went away. But Pizarro felt 
sure that the Inca had only sent him to find out 
how large the Spanish army was, and he list- 
ened a little nervously to De Soto's account of 
the cities he had seen, all well fortified, and 
able to hold out a long time against a besieging 
army. And then De Soto told of the riches 
and greatness of Cuzco, the capital, and said 
that an Indian noble had described to him its 



154 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

magnificent palaces and temples, whose walls 
were covered with gold and silver and precious 
stones; and at this Pizarro determined there 
was no time to be lost, and set out immediately 
for Caxamalca, where the Inca held his camp. 

Caxamalca was built near a beautiful river 
that flowed through the valley below, and its 
great stone fortresses and lofty temples, its pal- 
aces and towers, its beautiful gardens and wide, 
well-paved streets, and its large public square 
with its fountains and flowers, all showed Pizarro, 
on his arrival there, that he had come into a 
land whose people knew well how to be com- 
fortable in peace as well as to defend themselves 
in war. He at once marched his soldiers into 
the great square, where he pitched his tents as 
if resolved to stay. The Inca's army lay upon 
the slopes of the mountains three miles from 
Caxamalca, and there was great excitement and 
wonder among the troops, as Indians from the 
town came into camp describing the appearance 
of the Spanish soldiers. The Peruvians had 
indeed looked with surprise and awe upon these 
invaders, whose white faces and long, brown 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 1 55 

hair, and glittering armor, were so different 
from anything they had ever seen before. And 
the greatest wonder of all was the fact that 
many of these strangers rode upon curious ani- 
mals that were eager to rush into battle, and 
that the riders guided often with a word or 
motion, showing that the creatures understood 
human speech. These were the horses that 
Pizarro had brought, and they were well calcu- 
lated to inspire the Peruvians with terror, for as 
the cavalry charged fiercely in battle, the inno- 
cent natives thought that the horse and man all 
formed one animal ; and once, when a man fell 
from his horse, the Indians ran screaming away, 
saying that the strange animal had broken all 
to pieces. Even when they had grown more 
accustomed to seeinof them their fear did not 
lessen, for the intelligence of the horse and his 
power to understand his master's speech always 
seemed like something half-human to the Pe- 
ruvians, who had never seen horses before. 
The arms of the Spaniards seemed very terrible 
too ; the flash and smoke and noise of the guns 
seemed to them like something supernatural, 



156 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

like the lightning or thunder, and frightened 
them so that at the first sound they were ready- 
to throw down their weapons and fly. 

Pizarro knew all this very well, and the next 
morning after his arrival at Caxamalca, when 
he sent to the Inca's camp to ask if the Span- 
iards were welcome to Peru, the men he chose 
were De Soto, and his brother Hernando, and 
they both rode on powerful milk-white horses, 
and had with them an escort of forty horsemen, 
all clad in glittering armor and with brilliant 
trappings on their steeds. The party rode rap- 
idly along, and as they came to the river that 
separated them from the Inca's camp, dashed 
boldly into the stream and came swiftly up to 
the line of Peruvian warriors that stood waiting 
to receive them and conduct them to the pres- 
ence of the emperor. They found the monarch 
seated on a golden throne, surrounded by richly 
attired nobles, and attended by the most beau- 
tiful women in the court. All the courtiers and 
attendants stood with bowed heads, for no one 
might raise his eyes in the presence of the Inca. 

The Spaniards stood for some moments in 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 15/ 

silence, and then Hernando Pizarro told the 
Inca, through an interpreter, that he and his 
countrymen were the subjects of a mighty mon- 
arch across the sea, who had sent them to ask 
the Inca to be his friend. The Inca did not re- 
ply to this speech in person, but one of his no- 
bles came forward and said that the emperor 
bade them welcome, and the next day would 
visit the Spanish chief at Caxamalca. The 
Spaniards had to- be content with this, as it soon 
became evident that the Peruvians had no in- 
tention of saying any more. De Soto now 
thouorht he would show the Inca some of the 

o 

good qualities of his horse, for he well knew 
that the splendid animal had attracted his atten- 
tion, so he wheeled his horse round and round 
and put him through many difficult exercises, 
the horse responding intelligently to all his 
commands, and finally brought him down close 
to the Inca's throne. The Peruvians were much 
impressed by these exercises, as was likewise 
the Inca, but no one showed it by word or man- 
ner ; when De Soto had finished, the party of 
Spaniards were invited to a banquet, where 



158 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

they were served by beautiful women, who 
brought them fruits on golden dishes and drink 
in golden goblets studded with emeralds. 

And then they went back to Caxamalca to 
report the result of their visit, and when the 
soldiers heard of the thousands and thousands 
of Peruvians who lay camping out on the moun- 
tain slopes, ready to defend the Inca and their 
country with their lives, and when they remem- 
bered that all over the great empire were other 
thousands willing to take the places of those 
who should fall, then, indeed, the conquest of 
Peru began to look like a very serious matter, 
and many a Spanish soldier wished himself back 
in Panama. 

The next day the camp was astir at an early 
hour with preparations for the Inca's visit, for 
Pizarro had formed a very bold plan in the 
night, and all his soldiers knew it, and had 
pledged themselves to help him carry it out. 
He knew that there would be very little use in 
fighting pitched battles with the Peruvians, as 
there were thousands of them to every soldier 
he had, so he decided to overcome the enemy 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU, 1 59 

hy the same trick that Cortez had used in con- 
quering Mexico. 

The Peruvians, like the Mexicans, held the 
person of their emperor sacred, and Pizarro 
knew that if he could get possession of the Inca, 
the Indians would be afraid of attackinof him for 
fear of injuring their monarch. He would be 
safe as long as he held the Inca captive, for the 
Peruvians would understand that any harm 
done to him would be visited upon the Inca. 

There was another reason, too, why this 
seemed a good plan. The Inca had a brother 
who was left part of the kingdom by his father's 
will, but Atahualpa, the present Inca, had de- 
throned his brother, Huascar, and now un- 
lawfully held his dominions, and Pizarro knew 
that the imprisonment of Atahualpa would be 
the means of making Huascar his friend, and 
as Huascar was really the lawful king of a large 
part of Peru, and had many faithful and loving 
subjects among its people, it would be a good 
thing for the Spaniards to be able to count him 
among their friends. 

It was on Saturday, November i6, 1532, 



l6o PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

that this bold deed was to be done. Pizarro 
concealed his soldiers in different places and 
kept only his officers around him, in order to 
deceive Atahualpa the better, and when all was 
ready, and the watchword, " Santiago," was 
agreed upon as a signal, he waited impatiently 
for the appearance of the Inca. It almost 
seemed as if something warned the emperor to 
keep away from Caxamalca, for he kept putting 
off his visit from hour to hour, and even at one 
time sent word that he would not come till the 
next day ; but Pizarro replied that he would not 
take his supper until his visitor came, and 
whether from fear of offending the Spaniards, 
or because he thought there was no use in 
putting off the visit, Atahualpa finally gave the 
order for the camp to move, and was soon on 
his way to the town. 

He sat upon his golden throne, with his jew- 
elled diadem upon his head, and with the royal 
standard, the rainbow-hued banner, carried be- 
fore him. His litter was borne by the great 
nobles, all richly dressed, and before the throne, 
and for a long distance behind, marched com- 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. l6l 

pany after company of Peruvian soldiers. As 
they entered the great square of Caxamalca a 
Spanish monk came forward and saluted the 
emperor with great respect. 

Atahuala looked upon the fair faces and 
glittering armor of the Spanish soldiers, and 
then upon the white robes of the priest and the 
gilded cross he held in his hand, and turning 
to his attendants, said impressively: "These 
strangers are the messengers of the gods ; be 
careful of offending them." 

The priest now made a long speech, in which 
he told the Inca that the Pope, as head of the 
Christian church, had given the empire of Peru 
to the king of Spain, and that it was the will 
of God that the Peruvians should all become 
Christians and cease to worship the Sun. 

The Inca listened to this speech very pa- 
tiently and asked the interpreter where the 
priest had learned all that strange news. The 
priest answered that he had learned it all from 
the Bible he held in his hand. Atahualpa then 
took the Bible, and, after looking at it curiously, 
held it up to his ear as if expecting to learn its 



l62 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

secrets in that manner ; but as he heard nothing, 
he threw it angrily from him and exclaimed 
haughtily, " I am very willing to be a friend of 
the king of Spain, but not his vassal ; the Pope 
must be a very extraordinary man to give away 
a country that does not belong to him. I shall 
not change my religion, and if the Christians 
adore a God who died upon a cross, I worship 
the Sun, who never dies." 

At these defiant words the priest turned 
angrily to Pizarro and made a sign. And then 
shouting " Santiago," the terrible war-cry of 
the Spaniards that had so often urged them on 
to victory, Pizarro seized the Inca and called 
upon his soldiers to come forth from their hid- 
ing-places. In a moment the place was alive 
with the excited Spaniards, guns were fired, 
and the terrified Peruvians, startled at this 
unexpected attack, were trampled under the 
horses' hoofs and blinded by the smoke, and 
although the Inca's guard tried in vain to pro- 
tect him, they were all killed or wounded, and 
of the remaining Peruvians — men, women, and 
children — very few who had entered the square 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 163 



left it alive, but nearly all were murdered by the 
relentless Spaniards. Then the gates were 
closed and guarded, and the Inca was taken to 
Pizarro's tent, where his robe and jewels were 
taken from him, and after being clothed in a 
plainer dress he was invited to take supper with 
Pizarro. 

Then the conqueror told his prisoner his 
true reason for coming to Peru, and Atahualpa 
heard it all with bowed head and sad face, and 
remembered, as he listened, the old legend of 
his race — how from across the seas fair-haired 
men were to come, bringing sorrow and destruc- 
tion to the children of the Sun. The old 
prophecy had come true, and the last Inca of 
Peru was a prisoner in the hands of a strange 
man, with white skin and long brown hair. 
Pizarro slept well after his easy victory, happy 
in the thought that that day's work had made 
his name immortal, for never before in the his- 
tory of the world had there been such a brill- 
iant conquest as this. Even the name of Cor- 
tez would now stand second to his own. 

The next morning Pizarro saw that the re- 



1 64 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

mainder of the Inca's army were making hasty 
preparations for departure, and in a short time 
scarcely a sign remained of the vast host that 
had been scattered over the slopes of the 
mountains. As Pizarro's object was simply to 
get all the treasures he could, he did not take 
any prisoners, but let the disheartened Peru- 
vians go whither they would, and devoted him- 
self to obtaining all the gold and jewels that 
could be found in Caxamalca or on the bodies 
of the slaughtered Indians. The Inca at once 
noticed the Spaniards' love of gold, and told 
Pizarro if he would give him his freedom he 
would give him a large room full of silver, and 
gold enough to fill half a room. Pizarro's eyes 
glistened at this proposal, which he at once ac- 
cepted, and the Inca hastily sent some of his 
servants to Cuzco to order the people to bring 
the gold and silver from the temples and pal- 
aces. Day after day messengers arrived bring- 
ing the precious metals — vases, basins, goblets, 
table-service and temple-service, all of purest 
gold, besides golden fountains, birds, fruits, and 
vegetables, all carved out of the metal in the 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. l6$ 

curious way known to the Indians. Two thou- 
sand men were employed in bringing this treas- 
ure, and every day Atahualpa's heart grew 
liofhter, for he thouo-ht each niofht brouo;-ht him 
nearer freedom. 

But one day messengers came to the city 
from the Inca's brother Huascar, saying that if 
Pizarro would set him free from the prison 
where Atahualpa had confined him, he would 
give the conqueror twice as much gold as the 
Inca had promised him. Somehow this news 
reached Atahualpa, and in great fear lest Pizarro 
should accept his brother's offer, he sent In- 
dians to kill him as he was on his way to Caxa- 
malca. This roused Pizarro's anger, for he had 
meant to get the gold from both brothers, and 
then decide to give the kingdom to the one who 
would be likely to trouble him the least. So 
when the news of Huascar's death came to him, 
and he knew he would not get the gold that 
he had been promised, he determined that the 
Inca should suffer for his loss. At the same 
time he heard that the Peruvians were gather- 
ing an army under one of their most skilful 



l66 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

generals, and intended attacking the Spaniards 
and rescuing the Inca. No time was to be lost, 
Pizarro called a council of his chief men, and it 
was decided that the Inca must be put to death 
and the army march at once to Cuzco. Atahu- 
alpa could not believe the terrible news when it 
was brought to him ; in vain he pointed to the 
glittering piles of gold that his faithful subjects 
had brought for his ransom ; in vain he re- 
minded Pizarro of his promise. The conqueror 
of Peru thought nothing of his honor, but only 
of the gold that he might find in the Inca's 
stately palaces, and Atahualpa learned to his 
cost what it meant to trust in a Spanish soldier's 
plighted word ; for, although all the officers de- 
clared that the Inca must die, it was Pizarro 
himself who acted as one of the judges at the 
trial, and it was his voice that condemned him 
to death. 

He was sentenced to be burned to death, 
and at night after the trial was over he was 
led out to the centre of the square and bound to 
the stake. The Spanish soldiers stood, round 
with torches in hands, watching intently the 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 167 

face of the doomed monarch, whose bearino- was 
as proud and dignified as it had been when he 
first came to the Spanish camp surrounded by- 
thousands of his faithful subjects. 

After the fagots had been piled up around 
him, the same priest who had first urged him to 
become a Christian, came to him and said that 
if he would be baptized he might be strangled 
instead of burned. As this would be a much 
easier death, Atahualpa consented, and the 
priest baptized him. 

And then they killed him as he stood there 
alone, with his hands clasped, and his eyes 
lifted toward the heavens from which the great 
god had vanished many hours before, and so 
perished Atahualpa, the last of the children of 
the Sun, and the empire of the Incas was at an 
end. 

Pizarro now determined to march at once to 
Cuzco, and in order to appease the Peruvians, 
who were horrified and angry at the murder of 
Atahualpa, a younger brother of the emperor 
was crowned Inca, although Pizarro meant to 
keep the real power in his own hands. But it 



l68 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

would be safer for the Spaniards to march 
through the country if they had the person of 
an Inca in their power, and the young Toparca 
had a mild and gentle nature, and Pizarro could 
easily rule him. 

De Soto was sent ahead to spy out danger, 
and although his party, as well as his main 
army, was attacked once or twice by Peruvians, 
the Spaniards had only to charge upon them 
with their fiery horses, when the Indians would 
break ranks at once and fly in terror to the 
woods, and so with but little adventure Cuzco 
was reached at last, and Pizarro found himself 
in the capital of the great empire he had con- 
quered. 

Toparca having died on the way to Cuzco, 
another brother, Manco, was crowned Inca, with 
great ceremony, in the midst of thousands of 
assembled Peruvians, and a treaty of peace was 
entered into between Manco and Pizarro, and 
eternal friendship was sworn between them ; but 
although this satisfied the Peruvians, Manco 
was really kept under guard and was closely 
watched all the time. And now began the 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 169 

plunder of Cuzco, and its beautiful temples and 
royal palaces were soon despoiled of all their 
treasures ; it was found when the gold and 
jewels had been divided that each soldier in the 
Spanish army was a rich man, and that the 
king's portion was immense. 

But Cuzco was too far from the sea-coast to 
be a suitable capital for the new kingdom that 
Pizarro meant to found, and after its stores of 
gold and silver had been divided among the 
soldiers, the conqueror proposed to move the 
capital from Cuzco to some place nearer the 
coast, and as there was no large town near the 
sea that suited him, he gave orders that a new 
city should be built, with palaces, temples, and 
churches, and all things as fine and beautiful as 
could be found anywhere else in Peru. The 
workmen were soon at work, and thousands of 
Peruvians were daily employed in building the 
bridges and walls and towers that were to grace 
this new capital, whose foundations were laid in 
January, 1535, and which Pizarro named " The 
City of the Kings," and which is now known as 
Lima. 

8 



I70 PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 

But it was only a few years that Pizarro lived 
to enjoy all his glory and prosperity, for he had 
many bitter enemies among- the Spaniards. His 
old friend Almagro had been very dissatisfied 
at his share of the treasures that had been found 
in Peru, and had even tried to take Cuzco away 
from Pizarro, and become ruler of Peru himself. 
There is no doubt that Pizarro was unfaithful 
to his promise to divide the spoils equally with 
Almagro and Luque ; but Luque was dead, and 
Almagro was obliged to take whatever Pizarro 
would give him, and when he attempted to ob- 
tain more by force, he was taken prisoner by 
Hernando Pizarro and put to death. But he 
left a son, Diego, who resolved to revenge his 
father's murder. He had many friends in the 
city, for his father had been very popular among 
the forces that he led against Pizarro, and a plan 
was laid to attack Pizarro as he was returning 
from church on Sunday and kill him. But on 
the Sunday appointed, Pizarro did not go to 
church ; he had heard of the plot and remained 
at home. Diego and his friends were not to be 
baffled, however; they went at once to Pizarro's 



PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 171 



palace, and forcing their way to his private 
room, attacked him before his friends could 
come to his rescue. Pizarro fought bravely for 
his life, but the odds were against him, and in 
a few moments he fell dead at the feet of the 
man whose father had been his old friend, and 
whose help and trust had been the chief means 
of his conquering the empire of Peru. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FERDINAND DE SOTO, THE DISCOVERER OF THE 
MISSISSIPPI. 

Ferdinand de Soto, who was with Pizarro 
in Peru, was born in Spain, and the first years of 
his Hfe were spent in a gloomy castle where it 
was so quiet, that he often grew lonely and 
wished that he had some playfellow besides the 
birds or his dog or horse. His parents were so 
poor that they could not afford to send him to 
school, and so he grew to be a big boy before 
knowing how to read or write ; but his family 
were of noble blood, the noblest in Spain ; and 
although they could not send him to school, still 
they had him taught to ride and fence, as it was 
thought disgraceful for a Spanish nobleman not 
to have these accomplishments. And so the 
boy learned to ride daringly, and at the age of 
twelve could use his sword as easily as any 
other Spanish boy of his age ; and in the 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1/3 

meantime, in the halls of the dark old castle, 
he listened eagerly to the tales he heard of the 
wonderful land which Columbus had discovered, 
and he resolved that when he became a man he 
would o-o himself across the sea and brino- back 

o o 

gold and refurnish up the old castle and make 
it once more a place fit for noblemen to live in. 
When he learned to read he stored his mind 
with stories of adventure and romance, and he 
said that he, too, would go into the world some 
day and win honor and fame ; and so the days 
passed ; the sun brightened the castle walls in 
the daytime and the shadows hung over them 
at night, and through sunlight and shadow the 
boy dreamed on of the years to come when he 
would be a knight and a soldier and gain glory 
and wealth under the flag of Spain. 

One day a very wealthy Spanish nobleman 
named Don Pedro de Avila rode up to the 
castle and asked to see Ferdinand. Ferdi- 
nand at this time was an unusually handsome 
youth, tall and graceful, and remarkable for 
his strength and agility. He excelled all his 
friends in fencing and riding, and all those 



174 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

active amusements which the Spanish youth 
delighted in. 

Don Pedro had noticed the handsome boy, 
and as he had no son of his own he offered to 
adopt him and educate him ; so Ferdinand left 
his home and was sent to a Spanish university, 
where he spent six years, during which time he 
became renowned for his skill in the chivalric 
entertainments which were all the time going 
on in Spain. He took the prizes at all the tour- 
naments, and was everywhere praised and ad- 
mired. Don Pedro became very proud of him 
and treated him as though he were his own 
child. 

Don Pedro had a daughter, Isabella; who 
was very beautiful, and her father wished her 
to marry some rich nobleman, so that she might 
have a high position at the Spanish court ; but 
while her father was away in Darien, where he 
had been appointed governor, Isabella fell in 
love with Ferdinand de Soto and promised to 
marry him. When Don Pedro came back and 
De Soto asked permission of him to marry his 
daughter he was very angry, and from that time 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 175 

he became De Soto's bitterest enemy. He 
was going back to Darien again, and thinking 
it would be a fine thing if De Soto were to 
go with him and get killed by the Indians, he 
offered to give him a handsome outfit and ap- 
point him captain of a company of soldiers if he 
would go. De Soto was very poor, his parents 
were dead, and he thought he might win honor 
and wealth by going with Don Pedro, so he 
accepted his offer. 

At the time that he left Spain, De Soto was 
nineteen years of age ; he was away fifteen 
years, during which time he heard only once 
or twice from Isabella ; he wrote to her many 
times and she answered his letters, but her 
father always destroyed the letters. During 
the years that he was away De Soto did in- 
deed become rich and famous ; he had left 
Spain a poor boy, and he returned a wealthy 
and honored man. Without his help Pizarro 
would never have been able to conquer Peru, 
and the fame of the crreat soldier De Soto was 

o * 

talked of from one end of Spain to the other. 
In the meantime Don Pedro had died, and 



176 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

as soon as De Soto reached Spain he married 
Isabella. For two years they lived in Seville 
in princely style, but at the end of that time De 
Soto found that his money was fast melting 
away, so he resolved to go on another expedi- 
tion and gather more gold.. He asked permis- 
sion of the king to conquer Florida, where it 
was believed there was much gold, and offered 
to fit out the expedition at his own expense. 
The king consented, and De Soto began his 
preparations. 

As soon as it became known that De Soto 
was raising an army for the conquest of Flor- 
ida, all the young noblemen of Spain flocked 
eagerly around his standard. He accepted only 
those who were strong and able to endure hard- 
ship, for he knew that he had a very difficult 
task before him. Such an army had never be- 
fore left Spain ; the gallant and daring soldiers 
were nearly all wealthy and well-born. They 
wore costly armor and all their outfit was of 
the richest description. Everything was pro- 
vided to make the expedition a success. Arms 
and provisions, chains for the Indians whom 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1/7 

they expected to make slaves, bloodhounds for 
hunting runaways, and cards for the young 
nobles to amuse themselves with. Twelve 
priests went with them to convert the natives 
and keep up religious services. Ten ships left 
the harbor of San Lucar, with flags flying, bu- 
gles pealing, and cannon thundering over the 
water, and thus De Soto, under sunny skies 
and with bright hopes, sailed for the summer- 
land of De Leon. 

They stopped at Cuba, where De Soto left 
his wife to govern the colony during his ab- 
sence, and then sailing through the Gulf they 
entered Tampa Bay and landed. Here they 
heard that there was a large Indian town six 
miles away, and De Soto decided to march 
there ; but when they reached the village they 
found it entirely deserted. Not an Indian was 
to be seen. It was quite a large village ; the 
houses were made of timber, thatched with 
palm leaves; many of them were large, having 
many rooms ; they had useful articles of furni- 
ture, some of which were very elegantly carved 
and ornamented with gold. The dresses of the 



178 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

women were very beautiful and trimmed with 
shells and embroidery and richly colored ; there 
were exquisite shawls and mantillas woven by 
hand from the bark of the mulberry tree, and 
the walls of some of the houses were hung with 
tapestry of prepared buckskin, while the floors 
were covered with carpets of the same material. 
The buckskin had been tanned so that it shone 
like satin, and was as soft as silk, and it made 
the rooms look very luxurious and elegant. 

All this was very different from the Indian 
homes De Soto had seen in Darien, and he did 
not doubt that here he should find a kingdom 
as rich as Peru. He took possession of the 
village, and he and his soldiers lived in the 
houses. One or two of the Indians came back 
and were taken captive, and from them De Soto 
learned that Ucita, the Indian chief, was a mor- 
tal foe to all Spaniards because he had been so 
badly treated by Narvaez, a cruel Spaniard 
who had been there before De Soto's arrival. 
Narvaez had treated Ucita most wickedly. He 
had caused his mother to be torn to pieces by 
bloodhounds ; like Don Pedro in Darien, he 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1/9 

had hunted down women and girls with his 
bloodhounds, and had cut infants in pieces and 
thrown them to the dogs, and once, in a fit of 
anger, he had caused Ucita's nose to be cut off. 
Ucita remembered all these things, and when 
De Soto sent to him and offered his friendship, 
the Indian chief replied : 

" I want none of the speeches and promises 
of the Spaniards. Bring me their heads, and I 
will receive them joyfully." 

Thus De Soto had to suffer for the crimes 
of Don Pedro and Narvaez. While he had been 
in Darien he had always treated the Indians 
kindly, but he knew how cruelly other Span- 
iards had acted toward them, so he expected a 
great deal of trouble here. The Indians thought 
all Spaniards were alike, and it was a long time 
before he could make Ucita believe that he 
meant him no harm. He sent him presents 
again and again, and whenever an Indian was 
taken captive by his soldiers De Soto treated 
him kindly and sent him back to the tribe with 
presents. At last Ucita seemed to be touched 
by the kindness of De Soto, who then felt he 



l8o FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

could continue his march without leaving a 
powerful enemy behind. Ucita did not say he 
would be his friend, but then he showed a more 
friendly spirit, and the Spaniards felt he would 
not attack them. Ucita was a brave and noble 
man, generous to his friends and merciful to his 
enemies ; but the Spaniards had treated him so 
inhumanly that it is no wonder he did not at 
first believe in De Soto's offers of friendship. 

In the meantime a Spaniard had been 
brought into camp who had been taken prisoner 
by the Indians when Narvaez was in Florida. 
This man's name was Juan Ortiz, and he had 
been with the Indians ten years, so he knew their 
language and habits. When he was first taken 
prisoner he had been very cruelly treated and 
at last was bound to the stake to be burned ; as 
the flames crept around him he cried aloud with 
pain and terror, and the chiefs daughter, a very 
beautiful princess about sixteen years of age, 
could not endure the sight of his agony ; she 
threw her arms around her father's neck and 
begged with tears that Ortiz might be saved. 
Ortiz was about eighteen years of age, tall, and 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. l8l 

very handsome, and the sight of his great beauty 
and the pleadings of the princess Ulelah at last 
touched her father's heart. Ortiz was spared, 
but for some time after his life was misera- 
ble, as the Indians treated him very cruelly ; 
but at last his lot became easier, and at this 
time he was treated as a friend by the tribe. 
Of course De Soto was very glad to meet 
Ortiz, as he would be very useful in dealing with 
the natives. 

Ortiz told De Soto of a very powerful chief 
who lived about a hundred miles from Ucita, 
and offered to lead him there ; the Spaniards 
thought there might be gold there, and they 
joyfully set off under the command of Gallegos, 
De Soto remaining behind. The Indians they 
met told them of a place where there was so 
much gold that the warriors had shields and 
helmets made of it ; but very few of the Span- 
iards believed this ; they thought it was a trick 
of the Indians to get them away from the coun- 
try. In a few days De Soto followed Gallegos 
with the rest of the army, and they began to 
work their way through dense forests and 



1 82 ■ FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

swamps, and thickets, and through mud and 
water, losing their way and harassed by the 
Indians, in this mad hunt for gold. 

One day, while they were travelling along 
the banks of a river, they saw a canoe with six 
Indians in it coming toward them ; the Indians 
landed and three of them came up to De Soto, 
and, bowing very low, said to him : " Do you 
come for peace or for war ? " 

" I come for peace," replied De Soto, " and 
seek only a peaceful passage through your land. 
I need food for my people and canoes and rafts 
to cross the river, and I beg you to help me." 

The Indians said that they themselves were 
in want of food, as there had been a terrible 
sickness the year before, and that many of their 
tribe had died and others had gone away for 
fear of the pestilence, thus leaving the fields un- 
cultivated. They also said that their chieftain 
was a young princess and they had no doubt 
she would receive them kindly and do every- 
thing for them. Having said this, the chiefs re- 
turned to the other side of the river. 

And now the Spaniards, looking across the 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1 83 

river, saw that there was a great stir in the vil- 
lage opposite. First, a very large and beauti- 
fully-decorated canoe appeared upon the banks, 
followed by several other canoes also very beau- 
tiful ; then a gorgeous palanquin, borne by four 
men, was seen coming toward the river ; the 
palanquin stopped at the banks, and from it a 
graceful girl, very finely dressed, entered the 
state canoe. She sat down upon the cushions 
in the end of the canoe, over which was 
stretched a canopy ; she was followed by eight 
female attendants who entered the canoe after 
she had sat down. Then the six men who had 
just been to see De Soto entered a large canoe 
which was rowed by a number of other Indians. 
The canoe in which the princess sat was fast- 
ened to this one, and then they started, fol- 
lowed by several other canoes in which were 
the most noted warriors of the tribe. 

The Spaniards were charmed with the beau- 
tiful young princess. Her attendants brought 
with them a chair of state upon which she took 
her seat after bowing to De Soto, and then 
they began a conversation by means of the in- 



1 84 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

terpreter, Juan Ortiz. The princess said that 
it was true the pestilence had left the tribe 
very poor, but that she would do everything 
she could to provide them with food ; she 
offered half of her house to De Soto, and half 
the houses in the village to the soldiers, and 
said that by the next day there would be rafts 
and canoes ready to take the Spaniards across 
the river. 

De Soto was much touched by the kindness 
of the princess and promised to be her friend 
forever. Then the princess rose and placed a 
large string of costly pearls around De Soto's 
neck, and he in return presented her with a 
gold ring set with a ruby ; and then, with prom- 
ises of help on the morrow, the princess and her 
people returned to the village. 

The next day the princess had the rafts 
made and the Spanish army crossed the river ; 
while crossing four horses were carried away 
by the swift stream and drowned, for which the 
Spaniards grieved very much, as these horses 
had been of great service to them in their jour- 
ney. When they arrived at the village they 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1 85 

found very pleasant quarters awaiting them ; as 
there were not houses enough to hold all the 
soldiers, some wigwams had been built in a 
beautiful mulberry grove just outside the vil- 
lage, and the Spaniards were delighted to stop 
a while with these friendly Indians. 

The mother of the princess was a widow 
living some miles down the river, and De Soto 
wished to see her, and, if possible, make a friend 
of her, so the princess, as soon as she heard 
this, sent twelve of her chieftains to invite her 
mother to visit her ; but the queen refused to 
come, and said that her daughter had done 
wrong to receive the Spaniards. This made 
De Soto all the more desirous to make the 
queen his friend, so he sent thirty of his men 
to see her, with large presents and offer of 
friendship. The princess sent one of her rela- 
tives to guide the party ; he was a young man 
about twenty years old, very handsome, and 
with fine manners. He was dressed in a suit of 
soft deerskin which was trimmed with embroid- 
ery and fringe, and wore a head-dress made of 
feathers of various colors ; he carried in his 



1 86 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

hand a beautiful bow, highly polished, so it 
shone like silver, and at his shoulder hung a 
quiver full of arrows. The Spaniards were de- 
lighted with the fine appearance of their guide, 
who indeed looked worthy to serve the charm- 
ing princess, and the party left the village in 
high spirits. 

The guide led them along the banks of the 
river, under the shade of fine old trees ; after a 
walk of some miles they stopped for their noon- 
day meal, seating themselves in the shade of a 
beautiful grove through which they were pass- 
ing. The young guide, who had been very 
pleasant and talkative all the way, now sudden- 
ly became very quiet. He took the quiver from 
his shoulder and drew out the arrows one by 
one ; they were very beautiful arrows, highly 
polished and feathered at the end ; he passed 
them to the Spaniards, who admired them very 
much, and while they were all busy looking at 
them, the young Indian drew out a very long, 
sharp arrow shaped like a dagger. Finding that 
no one was looking at him, he plunged the arrow 
down his throat, and almost immediately died. 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1 8/ 

The Spaniards were much shocked and 
could not imaghie why this had happened, but 
they afterward found out that the young guide 
was a great favorite with the queen, and that 
knowing she did not want to see the Spaniards, 
who, he thought, might perhaps seize her and 
carry her away, and not daring to disobey the 
princess, whom he loved and respected, he had 
chosen this way to free himself from his trouble. 

The other Indians did not know where the 
mother was, so the Spaniards returned without 
seeing her. De Soto was much disappointed 
at this, and tried again to find her place of re- 
treat, but without success. In the meantime 
the Spaniards had heard from the Indians that 
there were great quantities of white and yellow 
metal in their country, and they thought it 
must be gold and silver ; but when the Indians 
brought it into camp, they found that the gold 
was copper and the silver mica, and they were 
again disappointed. 

The princess now told De Soto that about 
three miles away there was a village which was 
once the capital of the kingdom, and that there 



1 88 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

was a great sepulchre there, In which all their 
chieftains and great warriors were buried, and 
that immense quantities of pearls had been 
buried with them. De Soto, with some of his 
officers, and some of the Indian chiefs, visited 
this place and found it to be a large building 
three hundred feet long and over a hundred feet 
wide, covered with a lofty roof; the entrance 
was ornamented with wooden statues, some of 
them twelve feet high, and there . were many 
statues and carved ornaments in the inside. By 
the side of the coffins were small chests, and in 
these had been placed such things as it was 
thought the dead chieftains would need in the 
spirit world. When an Indian died his bow 
and arrows were always buried with him, as it 
was supposed he would need them in the 
" happy hunting-grounds," and, besides, many 
other things, as you already know. In these 
chests the Spaniards found more pearls than 
they had ever dreamed of. It is said that they 
carried away from this place fourteen bushels 
of pearls, and the princess told them if they 
would visit other villages they would find 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1 89 

enough pearls to load down all the horses in 
the army. The Spaniards were delighted and 
proposed to De Soto that they should make a 
settlement there, but he was determined to go 
further on in search of orold. 

He had noticed that for some time the In- 
dians had not been so friendly as they were at 
first ; some of his soldiers had ill-treated the 
natives — although he had given strict orders 
that they should not — and now he felt sure that 
the princess meant to escape from the village, 
and that her tribe would begin a warfare with 
his army. So he thought the safest thing to do 
would be to compel the princess to go with him 
when he marched away. He knew that the 
Indians would not harm him if she were with 
him, as they would be afraid of harming her, 
too ; so he told her it was necessary for her to 
go with him. The princess did not like this 
plan at all, but she said nothing, and in a few 
days De Soto began his march accompanied by 
the Indian princess, in her beautiful palanquin, 
which was attended by a large number of her 
chieftains, all handsomely dressed, and wearing 



I90 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

their gorgeous head-dresses with their nodding 
plumes. For some days they travelled through 
the forests, when one day, as they were passing 
through a very thick wood, the princess sud- 
denly leaped from her palanquin and disap- 
peared among the trees. She had made this 
plan with her warriors, and De Soto never saw 
or heard of her again. 

It is very sad to think that a friendship 
which began so happily should have ended 
thus, and had De Soto acted differently, the 
princess would always have remembered him as 
a noble man ; as it was, she must have been 
sorry she ever trusted him at all. Had he told 
her that he wished to leave her village, and to 
part with her and her people as friends, she 
would, no doubt, have let him go in peace; 
but by carrying her off he made her his enemy 
forever. His only excuse is that he thought 
it would really be safer both for his men and 
hers to make her o-o with him. 

The Spaniards continued their journey, and 
in a few days came to a large Indian village. 
The young chief received De Soto kindly, as 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 19I 

he had heard he did not come to make war. 
He took him to his own house and gave his 
men pleasant quarters, and they remained there 
two weeks. The Indians told them that there 
were copper and gold farther on, and some 
Spaniards went to find it, but were again dis- 
appointed. However, there were pearls in the 
rivers, and some very beautiful ones were ob- 
tained. Many of these pearls which the Indians 
had were of little value, as they had bored holes 
through them with a red-hot iron so they might 
string them for necklaces and bracelets. De 
Soto was presented with a string of pearls six 
feet in length, with every pearl as large as a 
hazelnut, which would have been of Immense 
value, had not the beauty of the pearls been 
dimmed by the action of fire. The Indians 
obtained the pearls by laying the oysters on 
hot coals, and as the heat opened the shells 
the pearls could be taken out. To please 
De Soto, the chief ordered his men to do 
this in his presence, and from some of the 
largest, ten or twelve pearls were taken about 
the size of peas. De Soto left this pleasant In- 



192 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

dian village and again commenced his march, 
and now came many dark and sad days. The 
Indians he met after this were mostly hostile, 
and there were many dreadful battles in which 
De Soto lost men and horses. They journeyed 
summer and fall and winter, passed through 
dense forests where the horses could scarcely 
move, and marched over barren tracts of coun- 
try where they could get no supplies ; they suf- 
fered from hunger and sickness, and many died 
on the weary march, but De Soto would not 
turn back, he was still determined to find gold. 
At length, when they were almost worn out 
with travelling for days through a region more 
dismal than any they had passed through, un- 
inhabited, and filled with tangled forests and 
swamps, they came to a small village, and here 
De Soto discovered, not the gold he sought, 
but something else which has made his name 
immortal. The little village was built on the 
banks of a river, and when De Soto went down 
to its margin he saw that, compared with the 
other rivers he had seen, it was like a sea. 
The river was a mile and a half wide, and rolled 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. I93 

swiftly by, carrying with it trees and logs and 
driftwood. For ages this great river had 
rolled from the lake country above down to the 
Gulf, but no white man had ever looked upon 
it until now. De Soto, in his search for gold, 
had discovered the great Mississippi, the largest 
river in the United States, and one of the long- 
est on the globe. The Indians called the river 
Mesaseba, which means, in their language, the 
Father of Waters. 

De Soto did not remain here long, the chief 
was not friendly, and after a few days' rest the 
Spaniards crossed the Mississippi and contin- 
ued their march. 

Once they passed near an Indian village 
whose chief came out to meet them. The chief 
said, as the Spaniards were more powerful and 
had better arms than the Indians, he believed 
that their God was also better than the Indian 
god, and he asked them to pray to their God 
for rain, as the fields were parched for want of 
water. De Soto replied that they were all sin- 
ners, but that he would pray to God, the Father 
of Mercies, to show kindness unto them. 



194 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

So he ordered the carpenter to cut down 
a large tree, which was carefully trimmed, and 
then formed into a gigantic cross ; it was so 
large that they were two days in completing it, 
and it took one hundred men to raise it and plant 
it in the ground. It was placed upon a bluff on 
the western bank of the Mississippi. The morn- 
ing after the cross was raised the whole Span- 
ish army, and many of the natives, formed a 
solemn religious procession and walked around 
it. De Soto and the chief walked side by side, 
and the natives and soldiers followed after, two 
by two. It seemed for the time as if Indian 
and Spaniard were not only friends, but broth- 
ers. The priests chanted hymns and offered 
prayers, and then the whole procession ad- 
vanced two by two to the cross, knelt before it, 
and kissed it. Upon the opposite shore of the 
Mississippi thousands of Indians were gathered, 
who were watching the service with the great- 
est interest; at times they seemed to take part 
in the exercises ; when the priests raised their 
hands in prayer, they too raised their eyes to 
heaven, and lifted up their arms as if asking 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. I95 

help, and the murmur of their voices floated 
across the waters of the river, and mingled 
with the sighing of the wind through the trees, 
and with the notes of the Christian hymns, and 
with the words of the Christian prayers ; and 
the blue sky above smiled down alike on the 
haughty Spaniard and on the simple native, as 
he kissed the great wonder cross, the symbol of 
Him to whom all men are the same, and whose 
love reaches down to all. 

After the prayers the people returned to the 
village in the same order, the priests going be- 
fore and chanting the Te Deum ; and Las Casas, 
the historian, writing of this, says, " God, in his 
mercy, willing to show these heathens that he 
listeneth to those who call upon him in truth, 
sent down, in the middle of the ensuing night, a 
plenteous rain, to the great joy of the Indians." 

So the rain fell, and the Indian sowed his 
seed and gathered harvests of golden grain ; 
and the cross stood there in the shadow of the 
forest, and the mighty river rolled on before it, 
and in the years to come, when the memory of 
the Spaniard had almost faded away, it was 



196 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

Still to the red man a sig^n of the love of the 
Great Spirit, who had helped them in their need. 

De Soto did not stay long among these 
friendly Indians, but pressed on his way. There 
were again toilsome marches and weary hours 
of disappointment, and, at last, the brave heart 
of the leader grew sad and hopeless. The cli- 
mate was unhealthful, and De Soto was taken 
sick with fever, and at the same time he was 
told that the chief of that country was getting 
ready for a great battle, in which all the neigh- 
boring tribes would join, and that they meant to 
kill every Spaniard in the country. 

But De Soto could fight no more battles, for 
he was dying. One by one the faithful soldiers 
knelt by his bed, and weeping, bade him fare- 
well. He asked them to live as brothers, loving 
and helping one another, and urged them to 
convert the natives to the Christian religion. 
And so the brave soldier died, far from home 
and that sunny Spain which he loved so well, 
and the whole army wept for him, for they loved 
him, and grieved to think that they should see 
him no more. 



FERDINAND DE SOTO. 19/ 

It was thought best not to let the Indians 
know of De Soto's death, as they might attack 
the Spaniards at once if they knew their great 
leader was gone. So De Soto was buried at 
night by torchhght, and no sakite was fired over 
his grave, nor any dirge chanted by the priests ; 
but the Indians suspected that he was dead, and 
even visited the spot where he was buried; so 
the soldiers, for fear the natives would remove 
the body after they went away, decided to take 
it up themselves and sink it in the river. They 
cut down an evergreen oak, whose wood is al- 
most as heavy as lead, and hollowing out a 
place large enough for the body, placed it in it, 
and at midnight it was taken out to the middle 
of the river, into whose depths it immediately 
sank. Then the soldiers, in the silence and 
darkness, returned to the camp, and De Soto 
was left alone in the wilderness, and only the 
stars and the river knew where he slept. 

His soldiers built some boats and sailed 
down the Mississippi to the Gulf, and after 
much hardship reached a Spanish settlement in 
Mexico. Few were left of the brilliant com- 



198 FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

pany that had left Spain three years before, and 
so ended the expedition which had sailed away 
from home so gaily. Their search for gold had 
been like following the will-o'-the-wisp, which 
leads on and on, and then vanishes at last, leav- 
ing you alone in the darkness. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

VERRAZANO. 

In France, as well as other European coun- 
tries, the wonderful accounts of the wealth of 
India and Cathay had been listened to with de- 
light and surprise, and the king, Francis I., de- 
termined to send out some ships and see if they 
might not discover the new way to the East 
that people had been looking for so long. He 
thought, too, that he would claim and settle a 
part of America, so that the New World should 
not be entirely owned by Spain and England. 
Before this, France had been content with send- 
ing- a few fishermen to the northern coasts of 
America, but they made no settlements, and, as 
soon as the fishing season was over, always 
went back to France again. 

But in 1523 an expedition left France for 
the purpose of finding a passage to Cathay, and 
exploring the coast of America. The expedi- 



200 VERRAZANO. 



tion was commanded by Giovani Verrazano, an 
Italian. Soon after leaving France, a tempest 
came up, and all the ships but one were obliged 
to return; but Verrazano, with this one, the 
Dauphine, went on to the Madeiras, and leav- 
ing that place in January, 1524, sailed boldly 
across the Atlantic. After a voyage of over a 
month, during which time another very severe 
storm overtook them, they at last saw land. It 
is supposed that this was the coast of Carolina. 
Fires were blazing all along the coast as far as 
the eye could reach, and Verrazano knew by 
that that the country was inhabited. He sailed 
along for many miles, keeping close to the 
shore, and was delighted with the new coun- 
try, which seemed more beautiful than any he 
had ever seen before. The shore was covered 
with fine white sand, making a beach nearly 
fifteen feet wide, quite level, except here and 
there where the sand was formed into hillocks, 
which were covered with strong short grass. 
Back from the shore were broad fields, which 
were kept fresh by the numerous streams that 
flowed into the sea, and still farther back stood 



VERRAZANO. 20I 



immense forests, whose great variety of color 
charmed the eye. Verrazano was surprised to 
find here many kinds of trees that were un- 
known to him, and said that no words could 
describe the beauty of these forests. " Think 
not," he says, "that they are like the Crimean 
forests, or the solitudes of Scythia, or the rigid 
coasts of the north, but adorned with palm 
trees, and cypress, and laurel, and species un- 
known to Europe, which breathe forth from 
afar the sweetest of odors." 

And combined with the aromatic perfume of 
the pines was the scent of the violets and roses, 
and of the beautiful lilies that swung in the 
lakes, and everywhere birds were singing, and 
graceful deer looked with startled eyes through 
the leaves of the hanging vines ; and the first 
impulse of the Frenchmen was to land and en- 
joy some of the flowers and fruits of this fair 
land. 

In the meantime the natives had come down 
to the beach, and stood looking with wonder on 
the Frenchmen ; but as soon as the seamen 
rowed toward the shore the timid Indians fled 

9* 



202 VERRAZANO. 



toward the woods. But the Frenchmen, by signs 
and friendly motions, made them understand 
that they need not fear, and soon they all came 
crowding round the seamen with cries of delight, 
pointing out at the same time the best place to 
land. Verrazano, in turn, was delighted at the 
appearance of the natives, whose fine figures, 
and beautifully ornamented robes, and gayly 
decked out hair, placed them above the common 
savages that the Frenchman expected to find in 
the wilds of America. After a pleasant little 
call here, Verrazano kept on his way, still going 
northward, carefully examining the coasts, and 
finding everywhere the same luxuriant growth 
of trees and fiowers. Still, there was no good 
harbor to be seen ; but as the ship was in need 
of fresh water he decided to try and land. But 
this he found to be impossible, as the waves 
broke with great force upon the open beach, 
making it dangerous for any boat that ventured 
too near. The natives stood on the shore watch- 
ing his efforts, and stretched out their hands as 
if inviting him to land, but he was obliged to 
give up the attempt and go back to the ship. 



VERRAZANO. 203 



The natives still continued to make friendly 
signs, and Verrazano replied to them as well as 
he could, and ordered a sailor to swim ashore 
with some presents. The man obeyed, and got 
near enough to the shore to throw the gifts into 
the ready hands of the Indians ; but as he turned 
to swim back to the boat he was overpowered 
by the breakers and dashed upon the beach. 

The Indians immediately surrounded him, 
and lifting him up gently, carried him farther 
up on the beach, out of the reach of the waves. 
But as soon as the man recovered from his faint, 
and saw where he was, he began crying loudly 
for help, and as the natives^ answered his cries 
with louder and shriller ones of their own, Ver- 
razano and his companions expected to see the 
unfortunate seaman speedily killed by the sav- 
ages ; but in this they were mistaken, for the 
Indians, after they had sufficiently admired the 
whiteness and delicacy of his skin, built a fire, 
and did all they could to help him out of his 
trouble. Verrazano met the same kindness from 
all the people along the coast ; he found them 
always ready to offer their friendship, and to be 



204 VERRAZANO. 



of use whenever they could. It is sad to think 
that for all the good he met at their hands 
he should allow his men to return evil ; but 
such is the case, for one of them having kid- 
napped a little Indian boy, the captain not only 
allowed him to be received on the ship, but car- 
ried him away to France, and none of his friends 
ever heard from him again. 

The Dauphine went on up the coast, turn- 
ing in now and then to explore, a little way, the 
many bays and rivers which it passed, and 
reached, one pleasant day, what is now known 
as the Bay of New York. Leaving his ship, 
Verrazano took a boat and sailed into the inner 
bay, approaching the island on which New 
York City now stands. This was the most 
beautiful spot that the voyagers had yet seen. 
All around stretched the wooded heights of 
New Jersey and Long Island, and the great 
river coming from the north seemed to promise 
a fair passage to some far distant land. The 
natives came thronging down on the beach from 
both shores, and, from their friendly tones and 
signs, seemed to offer a welcome ; but before 



VERRAZANO. 20$ 



Verrazano could go very far into the " beautiful 
lake," as he called the harbor, he was com- 
pelled by the rising of the wind to put back to 
the ship and sail on. But his visit is interest- 
ing, because he was probably the first white 
man who had visited the beautiful harbor which 
to-day is known as one of the greatest commer- 
cial ports in the world. 

And now the course was changed, and the 
Dauphine sailed east through Long Island 
Sound until Narragansett Bay was entered, and 
then a northerly course was taken, and the 
harbor of Newport reached. Verrazano de- 
scribes the country as very fair and pleasant, 
and indeed it must have appeared so, with its 
fields of blossoming trees and miles of stately 
forests. Before the boat touched the shore, the 
natives flocked down to the beach, and thirty 
canoes surrounded the vessel, all filled with the 
wondering Indians. At first they did not come 
very near, but sat at some distance from the 
ship, silently admiring the white-skinned stran- 
gers before them ; and then they suddenly gave 
a long shout of welcome, and began to come 



206 VERRAZANO, 



near to the ship and take the gifts of beads and 
bells and knives that the seamen threw out to 
them, and finally their last fear vanished and 
they entered the ship. Here, as farther south, 
Verrazano was struck with the fine faces and 
figures of the natives. Among them were two 
kings, the elder one about forty years of age. 
He was dressed in a robe of deer-skins beauti- 
fully embroidered, and wore around his neck a 
chain of gold set with large stones of various 
colors. His head was bare, but his hair was 
carefully arranged, tied behind, and ornamented 
with pearls and feathers. The younger king, 
who was about twenty-four, was dressed in the 
same way, and all the warriors who accom- 
panied them wore deer-skins highly orna- 
mented and polished. The women did not ap- 
proach the vessel, but remained at a distance, 
seated in the canoes ; but Verrazano saw that 
they were fine-looking, and modest in behavior, 
and that they too wore the finely-dressed skins 
of the deer, and had their hair arranged in a 
variety of ornamental braids. The hair of the 
older women was arranged very much like that 



VERRAZANO. 20/ 



of the women of Egypt and Syria, and the mar- 
ried women were distinguished by ear-rings of 
certain, pecuHar form. 

Verrazano stayed here some fifteen days, 
pleasantly entertained by the natives, and find- 
ing them always friendly and trustful. He made 
several trips up the bay, and examined the 
shores closely in search of gold and silver, which 
he found the natives thought much less of than 
they did of the brass rings and strings of beads 
that he bestowed upon them. But evidently 
the bay did not lead to Cathay, and no pre- 
cious metals were found on its borders, and so 
Verrazano got the Dauphine under way again, 
and taking affectionate leave of the Indians, 
sailed out into the Atlantic and up the coast 
toward Maine. And now the country changed 
very much in appearance, and the natives were 
less friendly. There were no beautiful palm- 
trees, or delicate blossoms of apple and peach, 
and in place of green fields and sunny mead- 
ows, were only sand and rocks. The na- 
tives would not come near the ships or let 
the Frenchmen land, and the trading was all 



208 VERRAZANO. 



done by means of a long cord stretching from 
the ship to the shore, and over which the 
articles were passed, the natives retreating hur- 
riedly to the woods as soon as the bargains 
were made. But Verrazano landed in spite of 
the opposition of the Indians, and went several 
miles into the country. He found that the huts 
were poorer than those at Narragansett Bay, 
which were made of split logs and nicely 
thatched, and that the country was poorer, too, 
than any he had seen yet. When he started 
back to the ship the natives followed his party, 
shooting arrows at them, and showing their 
anger by fierce, wild cries. But the Frenchmen 
reached the ship in safety, and were soon sail- 
ing away, still northward, and soon reached the 
shores of Maine, whose outlying islands, Ver- 
razano said, reminded him of some portions of 
the Adriatic. And then, being short of provi- 
sions, and knowing that the whole wide sea 
lay between him and France, he turned the 
Dauphine homeward, having explored the At- 
lantic coast, from the Carolinas to Maine, more 
carefully than any other navigator had yet 



VERRAZANO. 209 



done. When he returned to France he gave it 
as his opinion that the passage to Cathay did 
not He through the New World, and stated that 
America was very much larger than Europeans 
had hitherto believed. His voyage is consid- 
ered important because of the good idea he 
gave of the eastern coast of America, and be- 
cause he corrected the wrong belief that the 
New World was as small as other navigators 
had declared. 

But he could not make them believe that 
there was no passage to Cathay through the 
fair provinces of the New World : that beautiful 
dream was not dispelled for many a long year 
after Verrazano and his bold crew had become 
old and gray. 



CHAPTER XV. 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



Verrazano told such wonderful stones of 
America that many other Frenchmen felt a 
desire to go and see the country for themselves 
and find out if the stories were true. But some 
years passed before any new expedition was 
sent out, and even then it was only undertaken 
because the French became jealous of the power 
that Spain was getting in the New World. 

Spain already claimed Mexico, Peru, Florida, 
and the Pacific, and all at once the French king 
became alarmed and asked if God had created 
the new countries for Castilians (Spaniards) 
alone ! His courtiers hastened to tell him no, 
indeed, and that France had as good a right as 
any other country to own and settle America. 
And so Verrazano was sent out, and after him, 
ten years later, came Jacques Cartier, who left 
the fort of St. Malo in April, 1534. 




JACQtTES CARTIER FINDS NEWFOUNDLAND INHOSPITABLB. 



JACQUES CARTIER. 211 

The ships sailed across the Atlantic, taking a 
more northerly course than usual, and in twenty 
days reached Newfoundland. Cartier coasted 
along until he reached the Straits of Belle Isle, 
which he passed through and entered the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, and then sailed leisurely along 
the western coast of Newfoundland. But much 
to his disappointment the country was not beau- 
tiful and pleasant, as he had heard, but, on the 
contrary, very dismal and inhospitable. The 
fertile valleys and green fields that Verrazano 
had spoken of were nowhere to be seen, but 
instead only rocks and stones, and wild rough 
coasts. 

The natives were very savage in appear- 
ance and not very friendly ; and Cartier made 
a very short stay here, and steered across the 
Gulf to a bay on the opposite side, where he 
found the natives also in poor condition, living 
on raw fish and flesh, without clothing, and us- 
ing their upturned canoes as houses. But the 
country itself was much pleasanter than that on 
the opposite side of the Gulf, and so Cartier 
decided to take possession of it. Accordingly 



212 JACQUES CARTIER. 

he called all his company together, and with 
great ceremony raised a huge cross and claimed 
the whole region for the King of France. 

The natives had all gathered round and 
stood looking on curiously. There stood the 
cross, thirty feet high, carved with three fleur- 
de-lys, and the inscription, "Vive le Roi de 
France;" and not at all understanding what 
right these strangers had to their country, the 
chief and his principal men told Cartier, as 
well as they could by signs, that they would 
much rather he should take the cross down 
again and go away with his ships and leave 
them in peace. And Cartier explained to them 
in turn that the king he served was very pow- 
erful and rich, and able to send many soldiers 
and take the land by force if he so wished ; 
but that also he was a very kind and loving 
king, and wanted to do all that he could for 
the Indians, and that the very best thing that 
could happen to them would be to have some 
Frenchmen come there and settle and teach 
them the arts of peace. 

And then he gave them some trifling pres- 



JACQUES CARTIER. 21 3 

ents, some strings of glass beads, and yards 
of bright calico, and bits of colored glass, and 
shining penknives, and the Indians were so 
impressed by these gifts that, partly from a 
desire to obtain more, and partly through fear 
of the great unknown king, they not only let 
the cross remain standing, but what was much 
more, the chief consented to let his two sons 
go back to France with Cartier, and see for 
themselves the riches and power of his coun- 
try and king. 

And so the two Indian boys sailed away 
with these white strangers, and learned stran- 
ger things than they had ever dreamed of. 
Never before had they been farther away from 
land than they could go in a day's journey 
in their birch bark canoes ; but now, as they 
stood on the deck of this great ship, and saw 
the land fade from their sight, and the great, 
boundless sea all around stretch away and 
away until it met the sky, and the sun drop 
down into the water and redden its glossy 
waves, it was all so different from what they 
had been used to that their hearts grew sick 



214 JACQUES CARTIER. 

with longing for home and the fear that they 
had sailed into a new world and left their 
friends forever. But by and by, as the familiar 
stars came out, and the moon's friendly face ap- 
peared, and the night came softly down on the 
sea, the ship ceased to seem so strange and 
looked very comfortable and pleasant, and when 
the morning came they did not look backward, 
but only forward, to that mysterious France to- 
ward which they were sailing, and which they 
reached after a pleasant voyage early in Sep- 
tember. 

Cartier had been gone four months, and his 
account of his voyage was so encouraging that it 
was decided to send out another expedition as 
soon as the winter was over. The Indian lads 
were well received at the French court. The 
king was very kind and condescending and 
generous, and told them that it would be his 
greatest pleasure to send over some of his sub- 
jects, and make all the Indians Christians. 
And the two boys, Taignoagny and Domagaia, 
looked at the silk and velvet robes of the French 
nobles, and at the diamonds and rubies that 



JACQUES CARTIER. 21$ 

glittered in their sword-hilts, and at the king's 
beautiful palaces, and the marble cathedrals and 
splendid mansions of Paris, and decided that to 
be a Christian must be indeed a happy lot, and 
expressed their willingness to have their whole 
tribe converted as speedily as possible. 

Their whole visit was a succession of 
wonders and delights, for France was more 
beautiful even than their wildest dreams of 
their own " happy hunting-grounds," where it 
was supposed that the Indians had everything 
they could desire. But what Canadian Indians 
had ever dreamed of such a land as this, with 
its fields of flowers, and miles of ripened grain, 
and sunny slopes purple with luscious grapes ? 
Even the winter was pleasant, with but little 
snow and ice outside, and warm, comfortable 
rooms inside. Very different from their own 
winter, where the snow lay thick on the ground 
for months, and the rivers and lakes were 
frozen, and the pines and balsams hung thick 
with icicles whose musical tinkling seemed like 
a sad song for the summer that was gone. 
Yes, Cartier had told the truth, his king was 



2l6 JACQUES CARTIER. 

very powerful and rich and great, and when the 
spring came and another fleet left St. Malo, 
Taignoagny and Domagaia were quite in love 
with France, and very eager for the voyage 
to be over, so that they could tell their 
friends all the wonderful things they had seen 
there. 

Cartier and his companions were in fine 
spirits, for the voyage promised to be a fair one, 
and they were all sure that honor and wealth 
awaited them in the New World. In August 
they arrived at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 
passing Anticosti Island entered the mouth of 
a great river. Taignoagny and Domagaia said 
that the name of this river was Hochelaga, and 
that it came from a far distant country, and was 
so long that no man had ever seen the begin- 
ning of it. Cartier listened to this story with 
interest ; the stream was so broad and deep 
that he thought perhaps it was not a river at 
all, but a strait, and that he had at last dis- 
covered the long looked-for passage to the 
East. But the Indians told him that as they 
went up the river it became narrower, and its 



JACQUES CARTIER. 21/ 

waters changed from salt to fresh, and then 
Cartier saw that it could not be the wished-for 
strait, and so made no haste to follow its course. 

He sailed slowly up the great river, which is 
now known as the St. Lawrence, examining 
the country on either side, and looking for a 
good place to spend the winter. He passed 
the Saguenay, and some distance beyond an- 
chored at an island called by him Isle-aux-Cou- 
dres, because of the abundance of hazels, and 
after a short stay here, sailed still farther on and 
stopped at another island, which abounded in 
grapes and which he called Bacchus Island — 
now known as the Isle d' Orleans. Here he re- 
ceived a visit from the natives, a large number 
of whom had come from the shore in canoes to 
look at these white visitors. 

Cartier invited them on board his ship, but 
they were afraid to come very near until Tai- 
gnoagny and Domagaia appeared, and assured 
them there was no danger, and that the French- 
men were friends. The Indians were rejoiced 
to see their two young countrymen again, and 
came crowding aboard the ships to hear their 



21 8 JACQUES CARTIER. 

wonderful stones about France. Donnacona, 
the chief, made a long speech, in which he 
offered his friendship to Cartier and thanked 
him for his kindness to his young countrymen, 
and then kissed his hand and placed his arms 
about his neck in token of gratitude and trust, 
and then he invited Cartier and his men to his 
own home at Stadacona, a little village which 
stood where now stands the beautiful city of 
Quebec. The village stood on the cliffs, high 
above the river, which flowed beneath, and which 
formed there a pleasant and safe harbor for the 
ships. So Cartier accepted Donnacona's invi- 
tation and they all went to Stadacona, and spent 
some time there very pleasantly, getting ac- 
quainted with the Indians and learning their 
mode of living, listening to their stories of bear 
and deer hunts, and their accounts of snow- 
shoeing and tobogganing, and expeditions up 
the river and into the great forests all around. 
Particularly they liked to dwell upon their 
battles with another great chief who lived far- 
ther up the river. This was Hochelaga, after 
whom the river was named, and who was the 



JACQUES CARTIER. 219 

most powerful chieftain in the country. Don- 
nacona was very jealous of him, and was there- 
fore much surprised and grieved when one 
day Cartier said that he had made up his mind 
to go and pay Hochelaga a visit. 

In vain Donnacona tried to make him believe 
that the way was long and dangerous, and that 
Hochelaga would probably take him prisoner 
and treat him and his men very cruelly. Car- 
tier was all the more resolved to go. And then 
Donnacona resolved to play a trick upon him, 
and see if he could not frighten him from go- 
ing to Hochelaga, and so keep all the shining 
looking-glasses and knives, and bright basins, 
and pretty glass beads for himself and his own 
people, for he could not bear to think that any 
of this wealth should fall into his rival's hands. 
So one afternoon, as Cartier and his friends 
stood looking over the sides of their ship, they 
saw a most horrible sight. A canoe pushed out 
from shore and approached the vessel. It was 
paddled by some disguised natives, and in it 
were three Indian devils. And dreadful devils 
they were — the Frenchmen had certainly never 



220 JACQUES CARTIER. 

imagined such a kind before. Their faces were 
as black as soot, and they were dressed in black 
and white hogskins, and wore horns more than 
a yard long on their heads. And as they neared 
the ship they shouted and yelled in a very dia- 
bolical manner, and altogether acted as much 
like devils as they knew how. And crowds of 
natives followed them down to the bank, shriek- 
ing and howling and throwing up their hands, 
and then rushing back to the woods as if in 
great fright. Taignoagny and Domagaia, who 
stood by Cartier's side, also threw up their 
hands, and looking toward heaven declared 
that these devils had come from Hochelaga, 
and that the god Cudruaigny had sent them to 
warn the French that all who attempted to 
visit Hochelaga should perish on the way, for 
Cudruaigny would send snow-storms, and ice- 
storms, and cold piercing blasts from the north, 
and the French would all die miserably of cold 
and exposure. 

But the French only laughed at the devils, 
and called Cudruaigny a " noddy," and said 
they had received word from heaven that the 



JACQUES CARTIER. 221 

weather would be fair, and that they would all 
be defended from the cold, and so the Indian 
devils, who were no match for French priests, 
turned back to the shore, and the natives, giving 
three loud shrieks in token of their defeat, took 
the devils in their midst and began a wild dance 
on the beach ; and the next day, when Cartier 
started for Hochelaga, they sent their good 
wishes with him, and promised protection to 
those who remained behind. 

For days and days Cartier sailed along the 
beautiful banks of the great river, stopping now 
and then to enter the great forests which were 
full of all kinds of game, or to gather the wild 
grapes that hung full on every side ; and every- 
where the natives came down to the beach and 
greeted them pleasantly, and when they reached 
Hochelaga they found a great crowd of Indians 
waiting to receive them and lead them to their 
village. Cartier and his companions put on 
their velvet mantles, and plumed hats, and daz- 
zling swords, and marched on with great pomp, 
followed by the admiring crowd. 

The village was very pleasantly situated ; 



222 JACQUES CARTIER. 

in front flowed the shining waters of the Ho- 
chelaga, which was nearly a mile wide at that 
point, and behind, like a protecting spirit, stood 
the beautifully wooded mountain which Cartier 
called Mount Royal, a name which it still bears. 
The village itself stood in the midst of great 
fields of Indian corn, ripe for gathering, sur- 
rounded by palisades for defence against hos- 
tile tribes. There were about fifty huts, that 
of the chief being the largest, and situated 
in the centre near the great public square, 
where all the people now gathered and look- 
ed with wonder and reverence on these new- 
comers. And the mothers brouo-ht their little 
children in their arms, and begged that these 
white strangers would touch them, thinking in 
some strange way that even the touch of these 
^wonderful visitors would bring blessing with it. 
They were quite ready to believe that these 
white men came from a land richer and greater 
than their own ; indeed they would have be- 
lieved that they came from heaven itself if Car- 
tier had told them so, for all the Indians always 
worshipped beautiful objects, and they thought 



JACQUES CARTIER. 223 



that men whose skin was soft and white, and 
who wore such rich clothing, must belong in 
some great land where men were nobler and 
better than poor half-clothed races like their 
own. 

And so they brought their sick king and 
laid him down before Cartier, and asked him to 
touch him and heal him, and Cartier knelt down 
and rubbed the king's useless limbs and prayed 
over him ; but more than that he could not do. 
But the sight of the kneeling Christians, and the 
sound of their prayers uttered to an unseen God, 
filled the Indians with awe : they too knelt down 
and looked toward heaven, and made the sign 
of the cross, and prayed as well as they knew 
how, that the strangers' God would pity them 
and heal their sick and lame and blind. 

King Agouhanna then gave his crown of 
porcupine quills to Cartier as a token of grati- 
tude, and as this was the only thing of the least 
value that the poor chief possessed, Cartier ac- 
cepted it with great courtesy, and in return pre- 
sented the tribe with some of those brass rings 
and brooches and beads and knives that Don- 



224 JACQUES CARTIER. 

nacona had tried in vain to keep for himself. 
And these made the Indians wild with joy, and 
so altoofether the visit of the Frenchmen was a 
great success, and when they returned to Stada- 
cona they told such stories of the kindness and 
good-will of the Indians at Hochelaga that 
Donnacona was quite devoured with jealousy 
and hated his rival more than ever. 

The French built a fort now, and got ready 
to spend the winter comfortably, and their prep- 
arations were made none too soon, for in a few 
weeks the river had frozen over, and the ships 
lay buried in snow, and the strangers began to 
see a Canadian winter for themselves and 
judge how they liked it. Although very dif- 
ferent from any winter they had ever spent 
before, it might have been a pleasant one had 
not a terrible disease broken out among the In- 
dians, which soon spread to the French camp. 
In a short time twenty-four of Cartier's men had 
died, and the rest were all sick but three. 

Cartier became afraid that the Indians would 
attack the fort and destroy his men, if they 
learned of their weakness, so he ordered them 



JACQUES CARTIER. 22$ 

to keep away, and whenever any of them came 
near he had his men beat against the sides of 
their berths with sticks and hammers, so that 
the Indians would think they were at work. But 
the Indians, instead of meaning harm, thought 
only of doing good. As soon as they learned 
that the French had taken the disease they came 
to them and offered their own remedies, and tried 
in every way to be of use. The squaws brought 
to the camp the boughs of a certain tree and 
taught the French how to prepare tea from the 
bark and leaves, and this medicine was so pow- 
erful that in a few days all the sick became well, 
not only those who were suffering from this dis- 
ease, but also those who were afflicted with any 
other malady. It is not known exactly what this 
tree was ; it may have been the sassafras, or 
possibly the spruce ; but whatever it was it 
cured the sick and the French were very grate- 
ful, and said that all the physicians in France 
could not have done as much in a year as these 
Indian squaws accomplished in one day by 
means of this wonderful medicine. 

The French made a very cruel return for all 



226 JACQUES CARTIER. 

the kindness they had received from their dark- 
skinned friends, for in the spring, when Cartier 
left Canada, he carried with him the good chief 
Donnacona and nine of his countrymen as pris- 
oners to France. It was a very wicked and 
treacherous thing to do, for Cartier had invited 
the chief and his men on board the ships to take 
part in a feast that was being given in honor of 
his departure ; but as soon as he saw that the 
Indians were in his power he gave orders for 
the ship to sail, and so Donnacona and his 
friends were carried away from their relatives, 
who stood crying and begging for mercy on the 
bank of the river, and that was the way the 
French left Canada and its friendly people, who 
had shown them nothinof but kindness and trust. 
It was not usual for Frenchmen to treat In- 
dians in this way, for of all the Europeans who 
came to America the French were the most be- 
loved by the natives. They were the only ones 
who could live peaceably side by side with 
their Indian neighbors, who grew to love and 
respect them, sometimes attending their churches 
and often bringing their children to be baptized 



JACQUES CARTIER. 22/ 

by the kindly French priests, and Cartier being 
a Frenchman was afterward very sorry for the 
deceit he had practised, and, no doubt, would 
have taken Donnacona and his captive friends 
back again to Canada ; but the Indians could not 
live in exile, and before long they had all died 
of homesickness except one little girl, who in- 
deed grew up and married happily, but who still 
longed all her life for a sight of the wide shining 
river and the dark clustered pines of her native 
land. 

Four years after, France made another at- 
tempt to settle Canada. Cartier then met with 
the reward of his former treachery. The Indians 
were no longer friendly, and refused to believe 
him when he said that only Donnacona was 
dead, and the rest were all married and living in 
France as q^reat lords. 

Besides, the French had been disappointed 
in not finding gold and silver in the country, 
and so after awhile Cartier's ship sailed back to 
France again, and it was nearly fifty years before 
another attempt was made to make a French 
settlement in the northern part of America. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE HUGUENOTS. 

About the middle of the sixteenth century 
a great rehgious quarrel arose in France, be- 
cause some of the people wished to leave the 
Roman Catholic Church and found a new re- 
ligion. These people were called Huguenots, 
and the king of France and the priests of 
the Church, and most of the great noble- 
men, thought they would be doing a very 
nice and good thing if they could make the 
Huguenots come back into the Church again 
and be satisfied with their old faith. So many 
cruel things were done by the king- and his 
ministers, and the poor Huguenots had a very 
hard time of it. They were shot and burned 
and hanged — men and women and little help- 
less children ; and the more Huguenots were 
murdered, the more the king thought that he 
was doing God good service. 



THE HUGUENOTS. 229 

But there was one great nobleman who 
thought the Huguenots were right, and joined 
himself to them and said he would give his 
money and his life to protect them. This man 
was Admiral Coligny ; and as he was very rich 
and powerful he decided to send the Huguenots 
away from France to America, where they would 
be able to live peaceably, without fear of the 
cruel king. 

So Coligny sent out some ships, carrying as 
many Huguenots as they could, to the New 
World, and every one thought that the trouble 
would be nicely settled in this way and that 
France was well rid of the Huguenots. 

The company was commanded by John Ri- 
bault, a very good and brave man, and one not 
likely to be discouraged, for it needed a brave 
heart to lead these people so far from their 
loved France and find homes for them in a 
strange land. The voyage was very long and 
so stormy that it seemed sometimes they would 
never reach America at all, and they grew very 
tired of the sight of the sea, always so gray and 
threatening, looking like a great monster ready 



230 THE HUGUENOTS. 



to devour them all ; but at last, one beautiful 
spring day, as they stood looking wearily to- 
ward the west, a very fair and pleasant country 
met their view. 

A shining, level beach stretched up and 
down, and behind this the land was green with 
great trees whose waving branches seemed to 
nod a welcome to the strangers. As far as they 
could see this beautiful forest was all that met 
their eyes, not a sign of hill or mountain ; and 
the next day, when, after sailing along the coast 
a little way, they entered the mouth of a deep, 
broad river, and saw the fresh meadow grass, 
and smelled the perfume of the shrubs and flow- 
ers, they thought that they had been indeed led 
to a pleasant home, and hoped that their trou- 
bles were over. It was on the first day of May, 
1562, that they landed on the banks of this 
river, and for that reason they called it the river 
of May — it is now known as the St. John. The 
Indians, no doubt, wondered very much to see 
these white strangers, but they received them 
very kindly and showed them by signs and gifts 
that they wished to be friends ; they brought 



THE HUGUENOTS. 23 1 

them finely-dressed skins, and leather girdles, 
and strings of pearls, and golden ornaments ; 
and the French gave in return some colored 
beads and shining knives, and — most wonderful 
of all to the Indians — squares of tiny looking- 
glasses. These seemed very beautiful to the 
simple natives, who had never seen their faces 
before except in the clear waters of their lakes 
and rivers. 

The second day after the landing Ribault set 
up a stone column on which were engraved the 
arms of France. He meant by this that he 
claimed all that country for the king of France, 
and for any Frenchmeil who might want to come 
there and live, and that no other European na- 
tion would be allowed to settle there without 
his permission. The Indians did not in the least 
know what the stone column meant ; they did not 
suppose for a moment that these kind-looking 
strangers, whom they had received so cordially, 
meant in return to take possession of their land 
just as much as if it had been given them by 
their chiefs. But this is just what the French 
did mean to do, and if the Indians had been 



232 THE HUGUENOTS. 



unfriendly there would have been a great deal 
of trouble; but the natives of Florida were 
among the most peaceable of the Indian tribes, 
and they and the new-comers got along very 
peaceably and grew very fond of one another. 
Everywhere in America the Indians were treated 
better by the French than by any other nation, 
and wherever the French settled the Indians 
soon became their friends. So the Huguenots 
took possession of their new home and found 
living there very pleasant, indeed ; and in fact 
they could scarcely have chosen a better place 
than this fair land, with its abundance of fruits, 
its rivers full of fish, and its forests abounding in 
animals, valuable for food and skins. But al- 
though this pleasant country seemed almost 
like heaven after the troubles they had had in 
France, still they were not satisfied. They no- 
ticed that the Indians wore ornaments of gold 
and silver, and that they had great strings of 
pearls and turquoises ; and these things seemed, 
in the eyes of the French, of more value than 
anything else. And then, too, they had heard 
marvellous stories of Cibola, a place on the 



THE HUGUENOTS. 233 

Pacific coast, where there were great cities with 
houses built of Hme and stone, and whose inhab- 
itants wore garments of wool and cloth, and 
decked themselves with turquoises and emer- 
alds, and all their household utensils were 
made of gold and silver, and the walls of their 
temples were covered with gold, and their altars 
were studded with precious stones. A wonder- 
ful place was Cibola, containing, perhaps, a val- 
ley of diamonds and rivers of gleaming pearls. 
So they decided not to stay quietly here, but to 
look around a little and see if they could not 
find a place as rich in gold and silver and pre- 
cious stones as Cibola itself 

They sailed up the Atlantic coast and found 
the country just as beautiful and promising as 
their first view of it, and found also the same 
kind welcome from the natives. By and by 
they entered the harbor of Port Royal, and it 
was decided that this would be a good place to 
make a settlement, leaving some of their num- 
ber there while the rest returned with Ribault 
to France to report the success they had met 
with. It, perhaps, would have been better If 



234 THE HUGUENOTS. 



they had all gone back home, for a very sorry 
time had those who were left behind. Instead 
of making provision for the future, they thought 
only of the gold and silver they might get, and 
depended entirely on the Indians for their food; 
and although the Indians were most generous, 
still their food gave out at last and the French- 
men had nothinof to do but wait for Ribault's 
return. But as the months passed and he did 
not come, they set off for France in a small ves- 
sel they had built, and after almost perishing of 
hunger and thirst, were picked up by an Eng- 
lish ship and taken on their way. The feeble 
were sent on to France, but all the strong were 
taken to England as prisoners ; and so ended 
the first attempt of the Huguenots to settle 
America. 

But CoHgny decided to try again, and in 
1567 another company of Huguenots left France 
under the command of Rene de Laudonniere. 
They had a pleasant voyage and arrived in June 
at the River of May. As soon as they stepped 
on the shore they were greeted with shouts of 
welcome from the Indians, who came crowding 



THE HUGUENOTS. 235 

around crying out Ami ! Ami ! the only French 
word they remembered. 

How glad they were to hear this familiar 
greeting. Like their friends who had been 
there before, they felt that this pleasant place 
would be a haven of rest from the stormy times 
in France. Then Satournia, the Indian chief, 
led them to the stone pillar that had been set 
up two years before, and which they found 
crowned with wreaths of bay and having at its 
foot little baskets full of corn which the In- 
dians had placed there. The simple-hearted 
natives kissed the stone column reverently and 
begged the French to do the same. And to 
please them the Huguenots also kissed the pil- 
lar on which were engraved the lilies of France, 
and it seemed for a moment as if they were back 
in their own loved homes again, peaceful and 
happy, and that all the trouble that the cruel 
king had caused them was only an ugly dream. 

The next day the chief gave the new-comers 
a stately reception, for these Indian chiefs be- 
lieved just as much in ceremony as did the 
great kings of Europe, and the Europeans who 



236 THE HUGUENOTS. 



came to America were very much surprised to 
find such respect paid to rank and station. 
But this reception was something very differ- 
ent from any they had ever seen at a French 
court, gorgeous as they always were. In- 
stead of a gUttering throne and tapestry of 
cloth of gold, they saw a beautiful bower of 
trees and flowers. Dark pines and drooping 
palms formed a great, graceful arch, which was 
made still more beautiful with clusters of shining 
orange blossoms and heavy white magnolias. 
All the grass beneath was strewn with flowers, 
and the air was sweet with perfume, and thrilled 
with the songs of birds. The little Huguenot 
children, looking on this wonderful scene, 
thought it must be very pleasant to live in 
such a place as this, where one might have 
fruits and flowers all the time, and where even 
the grown-up men and women had time to take 
part in such festivities as they had never shared 
before, except on very xzx^fete days ; and they 
looked shyly at their little dark-colored Indian 
friends and held their hands out to them, and 
they all clasped hands and stood there a very 



THE HUGUENOTS. 237 

happy circle. Satournia stood under the shadow 
of the arbor and received his guests with great 
courtesy. He was clothed in skins so finely 
dressed that they were as smooth and soft as 
satin, and painted with strange pictures in 
bright colors, and so well were the pictures 
drawn and colored that the French said that no 
painter, no matter how great he might be, could 
find fault with them. And then the Indians 
gave their guests beautiful gifts, but the great- 
est gift of all was a great wedge of silver which 
was the present of Athore, the son of Satour- 
nia. Athore was a very handsome youth, and 
had gentle manners and a noble disposition ; 
and as he stood there under the trees and 
offered the silver wedge to Laudonniere, the 
Frenchman thought he had never seen a more 
princely boy than this Indian lad, who had been 
brought up in the wilds of Florida. 

The sight of gold and silver made the French 
very eager to leave this place, in search of the 
rich mines which the Indians said were in the 
interior of the country ; and one party after an- 
other was sent out to find the treasures that 



238 THE HUGUENOTS. 



they so much desired. The Indians were con- 
stantly telling wonderful stories of the wealth of 
other tribes, and advising the French to under- 
take expeditions against them. It was said 
that the Indians of one tribe wore complete 
armor of gold and silver, and that the women 
had ornaments and girdles of the same precious 
metals ; and another tribe was so rich that they 
had a great pit full of gold for which they had 
no use ; and above all, far back from the sea, 
were the Apalichi Mountains, which were as full 
of gold as the trees were full of blossoms. 

But by and by the French began to suspect 
that the Indians were cheating them, and that 
they only told these stories in the hope that they 
would go away and leave them undisturbed. So 
fewer parties were sent out, and it was thought 
that they might better have planted corn and 
wheat than to have wasted so much time in a 
vain search for gold. By and by the men be- 
came dissatisfied and said that it was Laudon- 
niere's fault that they had not done differently, 
and blamed him for not having provided for the 
safety of his people ; and one of the men said 



THE HUGUENOTS. 239 

that he had discovered by magic a mine of gold 
and silver which he would lead the rest to if 
they would kill Laudonniere, so that they might 
get the keys of the storehouse and provide 
themselves with food for the journey. 

But this was not allowed by the officers, who 
loved Laudonniere too well to want to see him 
killed ; but it was only the beginning of many 
plots and along time of disappointment and dis- 
couragement, and it would have ended by their 
all going back to France again, just as the first 
Huguenots had done, had not an English fleet 
appeared, commanded by Sir John Hawkins, who 
gave them provisions enough to last them until 
they could get back to France. But before they 
sailed another fleet appeared, and as the ships 
came nearer they saw the French flag floating 
from the masts, and knew that help had come at 
last. This fleet was commanded by Ribault 
himself, and now it seemed that all their 
troubles would be over. 

Ribault now took command, and knowing by 
experience that the search for gold and silver 
would only be vain and idle, began, instead, to 



240 THE HUGUENOTS. 

make preparations for the coming winter, and 
to provide against the attacks of unfriendly In- 
dians. And now it seemed that having been 
taught by their sufferings that only honest labor 
and good-will among themselves could bring 
comfort and peace, they really began this time 
in the right way. 

But hardly had a week passed when the 
Huguenots learned that they were now to meet 
an enemy far more terrible than the Indians, and 
that all the trouble they had passed through 
would not compare with what was coming. It 
had been told in Spain that Coligny had sent out 
a party to relieve the Huguenots in Florida, and 
as the Spaniards were all Roman Catholics the 
news was received by them with anger and 
hatred, and they decided to send immediately a 
Spanish force to Florida in hope of reaching 
there before Ribault arrived. In this they did 
not succeed, as Ribault had already brought 
hope and comfort to the colonists before the 
Spanish ships appeared at the mouth of the River 
of May. 

Ribault had left four of his ships there, and 



THE HUGUENOTS. 241 

when they saw the Spaniards they sailed off 
to sea, knowing that was their only chance of 
safety. The Spaniards were commanded by 
Pedro Menendez. He told the captains of the 
French ships that he had come there by order 
of the King of Spain to burn and destroy all 
the Huguenots in the country. This terrible 
news reached Ribault, who was at the fort up 
the river, at the same time with the information 
that Menendez had landed his troops a few 
miles southward and was preparing to attack 
the fort. Ribault immediately decided to take 
the three ships he had with him and sail down 
to the mouth of the river, and with the help of 
the other French, who had come back as soon 
as Menendez left the River of May, fall upon 
the Spaniards before they had time to build a 
fort and destroy them. Laudonniere did not 
approve of this plan, as he said the ships might 
be scattered by sudden storms ; but Ribault in- 
sisted that his plan was wisest, so he took all 
the best soldiers and sailed down the river, leav- 
ing all the women and children and sick at the 
fort, with only a few men to defend them. But 



242 THE HUGUENOTS. 



the ships were scattered by storms just as Ri- 
bault was ready to make the attack, and Menen- 
dez then decided to march at once through the 
forests and reach Fort CaroHne before Ribault 
could return there. 

It was a very bold undertaking, as no one 
knew the way through the forests and swamps ; 
but, as they were about to start, two Indians ap- 
peared, and were made to serve as guides, while 
a French deserter said he would show them 
where the fort could be most easily attacked. 
They marched two days though swamps and 
woods, drenched with cold rains and suffering 
from hunger ; but their fear of Menendez kept 
them from turning back, and on the night of the 
second day they reached the fort, and halting 
before it stood knee-deep in water waiting for 
the daylight. 

The storm had driven the French sentinels 
into the fort, and only one man was found at his 
post, when, at daylight, the Spaniards sent a 
small party to see if it were safe for them to 
advance. This man was immediately put to 
death, and then shouting " Santiago ! " their 



THE HUGUENOTS. 243 

terrible war-cry, the Spaniards rushed into the 
fort and began their work of destruction. They 
killed every one whom they could find — old men 
and feeble women and innocent children — and 
only those escaped who were able to steal away 
in the gray twilight of the early morning and 
hide in the woods and swamps. 

And then Menendez, who thought he was 
doing God service by this cruel deed, raised a 
cross above the dead bodies, on which was 
written, 

"I do this not as to Frenchmen, but as to 
Lutherans." 

Which meant that he was not fighting 
against the French nation, but only against the 
Huguenots, who were also called Lutherans by 
the Spaniards and Germans. 

Among those who escaped was Laudon- 
niere. He was found in the swamp in the 
morning, and with the others who were left 
sailed for France in the two vessels that Ri- 
bault had left. 

And now Menendez turned his attention to 
Ribault and his companions, who had been 



244 THE HUGUENOTS. 



wrecked on an island. Ribault's party was 
divided by an inlet of the sea, and Menendez 
first attacked one part and murdered them all, 
and then attacked the remainder, among whom 
was Ribault himself, and binding- their hands 
behind them led them to the place where their 
companions lay dead. Then Menendez gave 
them one chance for life. All who would prom- 
ise to return to the Roman Catholic Church 
would be spared. But Ribault and his fol- 
lowers would not accept life on such terms ; 
they answered that they were all Protestants. 
So Menendez gave the signal and all these 
Frenchmen were murdered also, and their 
bodies left exposed on the shore. 

And then Menendez went through the 
swamp and forests of Florida hunting the Hu- 
guenots who were still at large, and finally after 
much trouble he succeeded in killing the most of 
them, so there were few Huguenots left except 
the fifers, drummers, and trumpeters, who were 
spared because they might be of service. Then 
Menendez returned to the settlement he had 
made, and with great pomp and ceremony took 



THE HUGUENOTS. 245 



possession of the country In the name of the 
King of Spain. And then they sung the Te 
Deum and knelt down and kissed the crucifix, 
and were well satisfied with themselves, think- 
ing they had done a great and glorious thing. 

The Indians looked on wonderingly. It no 
doubt seemed very strange to them to see these 
two Christian nations so eager to kill one an- 
other. But the chief received the Spaniards 
kindly and gave them his house to live in, and 
then a fort was built, and from this humble be- 
ginning grew the city of St. Augustine, the old- 
est town in the United States. 

The news of the massacre of the Huguenots 
reached France, but for a long time it seemed 
that nothing would be done to avenge it. The 
king cared very little how many Frenchmen 
where killed if they were not Roman Catholics, 
and the Huguenots themselves had no power 
to raise money and arms. 'But at length a brave 
soldier, Dominique de Gourgues, returning to 
France from foreign service, learned the terrible 
fate of his fellow-countrymen and resolved to 
punish their murderers. It is not known whether 



246 THE HUGUENOTS. 

De Gourgues was a Catholic or Huguenot, but 
he cared little for difference of religion where 
the honor of his country was concerned. He 
said nothing of his plan, fearing the king might 
hinder him from carrying it out. He gave out 
that he was going on an expedition to the coast 
of Africa, and selling his estates and borrowing 
money from his friends he left France, August, 
1564, with three ships, keeping his real destina- 
tion a secret even from his own men. He really 
did go to the coast of Africa, and from there to 
the West Indies, and it was not until the next 
spring that he made known the real object of his 
leaving France. His ships were lying in a harbor 
at the western extremity of Cuba, and calling his 
men around him De Gourgues declared his in- 
tention of going to Florida and avenging the 
death of his countrymen, and asked how many 
of his soldiers were willing to accompany him. 
Not a man refused, and De Gourgues had, in 
fact, great difficulty in persuading them to wait 
until favorable weather for sailing, so eager were 
they to reach Florida and begin their work of 
vengeance. Every man felt, as De Gourgues 



THE HUGUENOTS. 247 



repeated the story of the murder at Fort Caro- 
line, that France had indeed waited too long 
to aven ore this fearful crime. 

De Gourgues sailed from Cuba, and as he 
passed the Spanish force at the mouth of the 
River of May, they saluted his little fleet, think- 
ing that the ships were Spanish. He returned 
the salute, and then stood out to sea again, in 
order to deceive the Spaniards, and going north 
a few leagues entered the mouth of a small river. 
The Indians, thinking that the strangers were 
Spaniards, rushed down to the beach with 
shouts and yells of hatred, and prepared to pre- 
vent their landing. But no sooner did they see 
that the new-comers were French than they fell 
on their knees and kissed their hands and gave 
them every possible sign of welcome. And 
their joy was increased when they learned that 
they had come to make war upon the Spaniards, 
whom they feared and hated. 

Satournia, the old friend of Ribault and Lau- 
donniere, now welcomed their successor with the 
same marks of friendship he had shown them, 
and declared himself willing to join all his forces 



248 THE HUGUENOTS. 

with De Gourgues in his attack upon the Span- 
iards. All the Indian warriors were called in, 
and at a solemn meeting they promised faith and 
help to the French, and as a proof of their good 
intentions the chief placed his wife and son into 
the hands of the French. 

Then at a council of war they agreed that 
the French should go by sea and the Indians 
by land to a certain place farther south, where 
they would join forces and march to St. Augus- 
tine. 

They met at the place appointed, and De 
Gourgues leading the French, and Olotocara, a 
nephew of Satournia, the Indians, they pushed 
forward toward the fort. As the Spaniards had 
done three years before, they had to wade 
through swamps and streams, and make their 
way through marshy forest lands, and their feet 
were bruised and bleeding, and their clothing 
torn, and their hands wounded with briers and 
nettles ; but they did not care, but went on 
all through the night, and scarcely felt weary 
when at dawn they stood in front of the Spanish 
fort on the north bank of the River of May. 



THE HUGUENOTS. 249 

Only one sentinel stood there as the French 
and Indians came up in the gray light of the 
early day, and as he saw the stern faces of the 
enemy he no doubt thought of that other morn- 
ing, three years before, when he had stood in 
the drenching rain waiting for the daylight to 
lighten the walls of Fort Caroline. But he 
was a brave man, and shouting that the French 
were upon them he turned his gun upon the 
enemy, and stood there bravely to defend the 
fort. But Olotocara springing upon the plat- 
form ran the sentinel through with a pike, and 
when the frightened Spaniards rushed out they 
were met by French guns and Indian arrows, 
and knew that the time for vengeance was come. 
They tried in vain to escape, and cried in vain 
for mercy ; they were only met with scorn and 
hatred, and so swift and terrible was the work 
of destruction that in a few moments all the 
Spaniards were killed except fifteen, who were 
found and held as captives. 

The Spaniards at the fort on the other side of 
the river knew that some stronger enemy than 
the Indians must be attacking their friends, but 



250 THE HUGUENOTS. 



they could do little to help them, and in a short 
time were obliged to think of defending them- 
selves, for no sooner had De Gourgues com- 
pleted his work on the north bank than he took 
ship and sailed across the river, the Indians 
swimming by the side of the vessels in their 
eagerness to reach the fort. The Spaniards left 
their works and fled into the forest, where the 
Indians hunted them like beasts, and where 
their cry for quarter was met with the same 
pitiless response that had greeted the ears of 
their comrades. Fifteen of them were bound 
and their lives spared for a short time, and the 
rest were speedily murdered. 

Still another fort remained to be taken. The 
Spaniards sent out from it a man disguised as 
an Indian to find out how many French and In- 
dians there were ; but the quick eyes of Oloto- 
cara saw through the cheat and the man was 
taken prisoner. There were three hundred 
Spaniards in the fort, and they might easily have 
overcome De Gourgues, who only had about a 
hundred men ; but the Spaniards thought his 
force was far greater, and when, two days after, 



THE HUGUENOTS. 25 I 

he appeared in the woods behind the fort, the 
Spaniards thought that a great part of his sol- 
diers were still on the way, and sent out a party 
to scatter his forces before help could arrive. 
But De Gourgues managed to place some of 
his men between the fort and the Spaniards who 
had left it, and thus they were in danger of the 
fire from the fort as well as from the enemy in 
front. The French fell upon them with their 
swords, and not a man was left. The Spaniards 
in the fort, discouraged at this, sought refuge in 
the woods ; but few if any escaped. Still the 
French cried no quarter, and still the Indians 
remembered the wrongs they had suffered and 
rejoiced that their enemies had fallen into their 
hands. When the dreadful work of death was 
over, De Gouro-ues hauled down the flao- of 
Spain and raised the French banners on the fort, 
and then he had the prisoners brought before 
him, and told them he had come there to avenee 
the insult which France had received at their 
hands three years before. Then they were 
led to the same trees on which Menendez had 
hanged his prisoners, and over their heads was 



252 THE HUGUENOTS. 



placed this inscription, " I do this not as unto 
Spaniards, but as unto traitors, robbers, and 
murderers." 

And then they were all hanged, and De 
Gourgues thought his revenge was complete. 
The Indians were satisfied too. " I am willing 
now to live longer, for I have seen the French 
return and the Spaniards killed," said an old 
squaw, and that was the feeling of all her nation. 
De Gourgues did not remain long in Florida, 
and the Indians were very sorry to have him go, 
and parted from him with many kind words and 
promises of friendship ; and the French, too, 
parted with regret from their dark-skinned 
friends, and promised soon to return and make 
their home among them, and so the fleet sailed 
away again, and reached France in safety, al- 
though the Spanish king hearing of the massacre 
of his subjects had sent a force to prevent its 
return home. But De Gourgues found that his 
brave deed was not approved by the King of 
France, and he soon had to leave court and live 
very quietly, lest his enemies should find out 
where he was. But everywhere throughout the 



THE HUGUENOTS. 253 

world he was looked upon by the Protestants 
as a hero, and long years afterward the Indians 
in Florida remembered affectionately the man 
who had so bravely taken up the cause of the 
unfortunate Huguenots. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 

Sir Walter Raleigh was a brave English 
knight, the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, and Hke 
him renowned for his chivalry. The story is 
told that when he was a young man he hap- 
pened one day to be standing on a street down 
which Queen Elizabeth was passing, and as she 
came to a crossing that was very muddy, Ra- 
leigh stepped to her side and taking off his 
cloak laid it down for her to walk upon. This 
act of courtesy was the first thing that made 
the queen notice him, and she immediately took 
him into her favor and helped him all she could, 
and her kindness was well bestowed, for Ra- 
leigh was always the courteous, noble-minded 
gentleman, ready to do any one a kindness, rich 
or poor, high or low, and to serve his friends 
and his country as far as was in his power. For 
a long time after the visit of the Cabots, English- 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH, 255 

men thought very little about the New World, 
but at length one or two voyages were made 
there, and after this people began to think that 
perhaps it would be a good thing to try to make 
settlements there. 

Raleigh was among the first Englishmen 
who formed plans for the settlement of Amer- 
ica, and as he was a great favorite of the 
queen, he had very little trouble in carrying his 
plans out. He was also very rich, and after 
obtaining permission from Queen Elizabeth to 
settle North America, he sent out two vessels 
under command of Amidas and Barlow. The 
ships reached the coast of Carolina in the month 
of July, 1584, and took possession of the coun- 
try in the name of the queen. The land seemed 
to the voyagers like a glimpse of Paradise. 
They spoke with delight of the " sweete-smell- 
ing timber trees," and the abundance of grapes, 
and of the shady bowers which echoed to the 
music of wild birds, and of the gentle manners 
of the natives who seemed to live " after the 
manner of the golden age." They spent some 
weeks there trading with the natives, but did 



256 SIR WALTER RALEIGH, 

not try to make a settlement, and then returned 
to England, taking with them a cargo of furs 
and woods. 

The queen was delighted to hear that the 
new country was so rich and beautiful as these 
sailors described it to be, and said that because 
it was discovered while she was queen her 
reign would be forever famous ; the name given 
to the country was Virginia, in honor to the 
queen, who was unmarried. The sailors said 
that Virginia had a good soil and fine climate, 
and that the Indians were very kind and friendly. 
Raleigh was delighted to hear this, and imme- 
diately sent out another expedition which was 
to settle on Roanoke Island. But when the 
settlers arrived there they found that the In- 
dians were not so friendly as at first ; they got 
into a great deal of trouble with them, and as 
they had been getting all their food from the 
Indians they came very near starving. Instead 
of planting corn and grain they spent their 
time in searching for gold and silver mines, 
and just as they were about to give up in de- 
spair, a vessel stopped there on its way to Eng- 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 25/ 

land and the captain took them all back home 
again. 

But Raleia"h was not discouras^ed ; he sent 
out another company, two years afterwards 
(1587), under John White. This company also 
settled on Roanoke Island and laid the founda- 
tions of the " City of Raleigh." And here, on 
this wild American island, where a few years 
before many brave Englishmen had been killed 
by the savage Indians, where there were only 
rough log-houses to live in, and where fierce 
wild animals roamed through the gloomy forests, 
was born one day a little baby girl. She was 
the granddaughter of Captain John White, the 
governor of the colony. This little girl was the 
first child born in America of English parents, 
and she was named "Virginia Dare." Some 
time after White had to go back to England for 
provisions ; he was away three years, and when 
he returned to Roanoke every trace of the 
colony had disappeared. And to this day no 
one knows what ever became of the colonists, 
and of little Virginia Dare. It is supposed that 
they might have been carried away by the In- 



258 SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 

dians and spent their lives as captives, but no 
one knows whether Virginia Dare grew up as 
an Indian maiden, far away from her friends and 
not knowing that she was the child of white 
parents, or whether, with all the rest of the col- 
ony, she perished by the hands of the Indians. 
All we know is that, more than three hundred 
years ago this little English maiden came to 
live a while on the Island of Roanoke, and that 
then she vanished as utterly as do the rain 
drops that fall into the sea, and only her name 
is remembered. 




SMITH SAVKI) BY POCAHONTAS. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS, THE INDIAN PRIN- 
CESS. 

Pocahontas was a very beautiful child, and 
was so good and sweet that she was loved by 
all the tribe over which her father ruled. Her 
home was in Virginia, and a very happy life she 
led there, in the sunny woods, with the birds 
and squirrels for her companions ; and in after 
years, when she went to live far away across the 
sea, the memory of her childhood home seemed 
the sweetest thing in the world to her, for it 
brought to her mind the songs of the birds, the 
beautiful flowers, the waving trees, the bright 
rivers, and the fair skies that she was so familiar 
with when she was a little happy child. 

To have had a happy childhood is a very 
beautiful thing, it makes all after-life sweeter, it 
is like the first spring flowers which we gather 
in the meadow, and although by and by the 



26o THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 

snow will come and cover the place where they 
bloomed, it cannot take away the memory of 
their sweetness and loveliness, for that is in our 
hearts and will stay there forever. 

So Pocahontas grew up in this pleasant 
home, and learned to embroider her dresses 
with shells, and to weave mats, and to cook, 
and to do all those thino-s which Indian maidens 
were accustomed to. 

One day, when she was about twelve years 
old, an Indian came into the village and told the 
people a story about a wonderful white man that 
had been captured some time before. It was 
said that he could talk to his friends many miles 
away by putting down words on a piece of 
paper, and he had a queer little instrument by 
which he talked with the stars, and he had told 
them that the earth was round, and that the sun 
" chased the night around it continually." They 
had never heard of such curious things before, 
and they decided that this strange being was 
something more than a mere man, and that per- 
haps it was in his power to bring good or evil 
upon them as he wished. So all the Indian 



THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 261 

priests and magicians met together and for three 
days practised all sorts of magic to find out from 
the invisible world what they had better do with 
their prisoner ; and finally they decided to take 
him to the great chief Powhatan, father of Poca- 
hontas, and let him decide for them. 

Powhatan received the captive with great 
courtesy. He asked him about his life, and 
found that he was one of a company of men 
who had sailed from England to found a settle- 
ment in Virginia. 

This man was Captain John Smith, a great 
soldier, who had already won much fame in 
fighting against the Turks. 

He and his companions founded Jamestown, 
in Virginia, the first English colony which suc- 
ceeded in America. While exploring the coun- 
try he had been captured by the Indians. His 
companions were put to death immediately, but 
he saved his life by his presence of mind. 
When the Indians captured him he did not show 
any sign of fear, but began talking to them about 
his friends in Jamestown, and wrote a letter 
which he asked them to send there. Then he 



262 THE- STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 

took out a pocket-compass and showed them 
how to use it, and also talked to them about the 
shape of the earth, and its motion around the 
sun. 

All this surprised the Indians very much. 
They had never seen a written letter before, 
and they imagined it could only be done by 
magic, and they thought that if Smith were 
guided through the forest by means of the com- 
pass it was because he could talk to the stars 
and the sun. And then, had they not always 
been taught that the sun came up from the east 
in the morning, and went down in the west at 
night, never to return, but that a new sun came 
each day to light the world ? So they listened 
to all these wonderful things with great awe and 
fear, and Powhatan and his council decided that 
it was not safe to let such a man live, as he 
might do them great harm, being so powerful 
and wise, and knowing so much about the un- 
seen world. When Pocahontas was told that 
Smith must die, she felt very sad indeed. Dur- 
ing the time that he had been a prisoner in the 
village she had grown very fond of him, as he 



THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 263 

also had of her, and it seemed a dreadful thing 
that such a brave and good man should die. 

Many a story had he told her of the lands 
beyond the sea, where lived the little English 
boys and girls whom he had left behind him, 
and Pocahontas was never tired of listening to 
the tales of that fair England that Smith loved 
so well. How different it was from her own 
home, and how she would like to see those blue- 
eyed, fair-haired children, whose lives were so 
unlike her own. Ah, it was such a cruel thing 
to think that this good man must die. If she 
could only save him in some way, how glad she 
would be. And he was so brave too, he did 
not flinch when he was told that he must die — 
not even when he was told that he was to be 
put to death in the most cruel way that the 
Indians could think of. And so the Indian 
maiden grieved and grieved and tried to think 
of some way in which she might save her friend's 
life, but she could not. 

At length the time came for his execution. 
He was brought out in the village square, and 
after his hands and feet were bound he was 



264 THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 

Stretched on the ground with his head resting 
upon a great stone. Beside him stood an Indian 
with a great club in his hand with which he 
was to dash out the EngHshman's brains. The 
club was lifted in the air and in another moment 
would have fallen upon Smith's head, had not 
Pocahontas, who at the last moment resolved to 
save his life at the risk of her own, rushed up to 
the spot and, clasping the captive's head in her 
arms, begged her father with tears in her eyes 
to spare his life. 

Powhatan was touched by his daughter's 
sorrow and listened to her request ; he ordered 
Smith's bonds to be taken off, and said that he 
would spare his life. 

So Smith rose from the ground a free man, 
and with an escort of twelve men was sent back 
to Jamestown. 

You can well imagine that he would never 
forget this brave, beautiful Indian maid who had 
saved his life. And many times after that he 
had reason to be grateful to Pocahontas. At 
that time the Jamestown settlement was in con- 
stant fear of attacks from the Indians, and more 



THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 265 

than once Pocahontas came throuorh the forest 
at night to warn the English of danger, and 
Captain Smith said that, had it not been for her 
help, the Jamestown colony would have died of 
starvation. The Indians were very unfriendly 
and very unwilling to supply the English with 
food, and if Pocahontas and her father had not 
brought them corn they could not have gotten 
it anywhere else. Jamestown soon became as 
familiar to Pocahontas as her own father's home. 
She often went there to offer help and counsel 
to the colonists, and always showed the same 
fondness for Smith that she had shown in early 
childhood. Smith was obliged to go back to 
England after a while, to be treated for a wound, 
and after he went away Pocahontas did not 
visit Jamestown any more. The English told 
her that he was dead, and she could not bear 
to go there without seeing him. But he was 
not dead, and the two friends were to meet once 
more — not in Jamestown, it is true, but in Eng- 
land, where Pocahontas went as the bride of the 
young Englishman John Rolfe. 

Rolfe loved the j^oung Indian maiden dearly, 



266 THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 

but he could not marry her, as it was then con- 
sidered very wrong for an Englishman to marry 
a heathen ; but after a time Pocahontas became 
a Christian and was baptized under the name of 
Rebecca, and soon after she was married. 

Powhatan and his chiefs were very glad of 
this marriage, as were also the colonists, and for 
many years after the Indians were more friendly. 
Pocahontas was taken by her husband to Eng- 
land, where she was received with great delight 
by the English court. The king and queen 
grew very fond of her and showed her every 
kindness that they could, and all the great Eng- 
lish lords and ladies wished to see the Indian 
girl who had been so kind to their countrymen 
in Jamestown. As she was a princess she was 
called Lady Pocahontas, and every one was sur- 
prised that a girl who had been brought up in the 
society of cruel savages, should have such beauti- 
ful and gentle manners. They said that she 
acted more like one of their own English ladies 
than the daughter of an Indian chief, but Poca- 
hontas was gentle-mannered because her heart 
was kind and good ; not gentle birth but kind 



THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS, 26/ 

hearts make the truest ladies and gentlemen, and 
no lady of the English court could say that she 
had saved another's life at the risk of her own 
as could the Indian maid from across the sea. 
Pocahontas was much surprised to find Captain 
Smith alive and in England ; she wept on seeing 
him, and begged him to let her call him father. 

Smith told her that, as she was a king's 
daughter, this would not be allowed at the court ; 
but she said that she must call him father and 
he must call her child, and that she would be 
his countrywoman forever. Smith wrote a 
letter to the king and queen asking them to 
receive Pocahontas kindly, and it was through 
him that she was so much noticed by the Eng- 
lish nobility. 

Her beauty and sweetness would have won 
their hearts, but it was the memory of what she 
had done for the English in Jamestown that 
made them so eager to be kind to her in return. 
Pocahontas did not stay very long in England, 
although she grew to love it dearly, and did not 
want to go away from the land where she had 
only known happiness and kindness. But her 



268 THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 

husband decided to return to Jamestown, and 
Pocahontas prepared to leave England with a 
heavy heart. She thought that they could be 
much happier there than in America, and she 
wanted to bring up her little son as an English 
boy, and did not want him to see all the cruelty 
and wickedness which she knew he would find 
in the wild life in Jamestown. So all things 
were made ready, and they left London and 
went to Gravesend, where they were to take ship 
for America. But, just as they were about to 
sail Pocahontas was taken ill and died ; the 
Eng^lish climate had been too severe for one 
born in the South, and so Rolfe and his little son 
went back to America alone, and the beautiful 
princess was buried in England, far from her 
own land ; and her English friends mourned for 
the sweet Indian girl whom they all loved ; and 
for years and years her story was listened to 
with admiration by the boys and girls in the 
homes of England, for it was the story of a brave 
and true heart, and such we must always honor. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE AND DISCOVERY OF 
LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

Although the southern part of North 
America became very well known to Europe 
almost immediately after its discovery, yet many 
years passed away before the whites knew very 
much about the lands farther north. This was 
because in settling America the settlers thought 
more of finding gold and silver than any thing 
else. Gold and silver had been found in such 
quantities in Mexico and Peru, and Spain had 
grown so rich by conquering those countries, that 
no one thought it worth while to go to any place 
that had neither gold nor silver nor precious 
stones to offer. And then, besides this reason, 
the northern part of America did not have such 
a warm, delightful climate as the southern. In 
Florida one could live for the greater part of the 
year on the fruit, that was so abundant, and one 



270 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

scarcely needed a house where the summer 
lasted so long; but up in the north one must be 
well protected from the icy winds, must have 
heavy fur clothing and warm comfortable 
houses, and above all, must spend the spring 
and summer months in planting corn and grain 
for use in the long, cold winter ; and so, as men 
knew living would be very hard work, and the 
chance of getting rich very small up there on 
those northern coasts, they stayed away, and 
long years passed before white settlers came to 
live among the beautiful mountains and valleys 
of New England. 

The first people who came were the fisher- 
folk. They came from France, and spent the 
warm months in tossing on the waters around 
the coast of Newfoundland and Maine, taking 
^in large cargoes of fish which they sold readily 
in European markets. When they went back 
home again they told very entertaining stories 
about the northern lands ; of their great rivers 
that came rushing down from the north, and of 
the beautiful forests of pine and spruce, and of 
the pleasant inland lakes whose waters were so 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 2/1 

clear that one could see the pebbles on the bot- 
tom, and which were filled with delicious trout. 
By and by these fishermen's stories attracted 
other people to those regions, and men began 
to go there not only to fish, but to trade with 
the natives ; and gradually it came to be quite a 
general custom for the traders and fishermen to 
build a few warm huts and pass the winter on 
the shores of some sheltered bay, instead of go- 
ing back to France at the first sign of cold 
weather. And here they learned many interest- 
ing things about the new country, and which 
made it seem quite worth living in. They 
learned how the Indian could start from the 
coast in his bark canoe, and, by means of those 
large streams, the Kennebec, and the Penob- 
scot, and the lakes that they formed, reach 
easily the smaller rivers of Canada and so float 
down to the great Hochelaga or St. Lawrence ; 
thus going from the Atlantic coast, through 
hundreds of miles of dense forest, to the large 
Indian villages of Hochelaga or Stadacona. 
Sometimes the traveller would have to carry his 
canoe from one lake to another, always a short 



2/2 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

distance, or around the rapids or waterfalls of 
the narrowing river ; but with these exceptions 
the journey was made entirely by water. And 
as the Indians of Canada and those of Maine 
were constantly trading with one another, the 
whites soon saw that a country where distant 
places could be so easily reached, and whose 
fine forests, and rich furs, and excellent fisheries 
could be had for the taking, w^as not so poor 
after all, and that perhaps they might as easily 
draw gold from the sea, or find it in the sweet- 
scented woods, as by wandering through the 
marshes of Florida, or on the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi. 

And so, little by little, the French king be- 
gan to believe that it would be a very good 
thing for France to own and settle Maine and 
Canada, or, as all the northern part of America 
was then called. New France; and in 1604 Sieur 
De Monts, a Huguenot nobleman, sailed from 
Havre de Grace for the purpose of making a 
French settlement in Acadia. With De Monts 
came his friend Jean de Biancourt, Baron de 
Poutrincourt, also a Huguenot, who wished to 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 2/3 

find a new home in America, where he would 
be free from all the religious troubles that were 
constantly vexing him in France. Samuel 
Champlain was also one of the company, and 
as he had been on several voyages before, and 
knew the country and people better than the 
others, he was looked upon as a very important 
member. 

The ships reached Nova Scotia without any 
mishaps, and Poutrincourt, who was delighted 
with the country, got permission to settle here, 
and began the foundation of his new home. He 
had chosen a delightful spot, and for many years 
lived there peacefully and happily, cultivating 
the rich soil, and showing the Indians how to 
improve their own way of farming. And al- 
though Poutrincourt was a loyal Frenchman, 
still he never looked back regretfully to France, 
for he found, amid the pleasant meadows and 
blossoming orchards of Acadia, a greater peace 
than he had ever known in his old home. The 
Indians all loved him, and the little Indian chil- 
dren came and went freely through the halls of 
his stately mansion, often lying at his feet while 



274 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

he was dining-, and catching in their Httle dark 
hands the nuts and raisins which he threw them 
as their part of the dessert. 

Very pleasant indeed would the settling of 
Maine have been if all Frenchmen had pos- 
sessed as good and true hearts as Poutrincourt ; 
but when De Monts, who had settled first at 
the mouth of the St. Croix, went sailing around 
the coast of Maine to find a better place, he 
found that the white visitors before him had left 
a bad name among the Indians, who came down 
to his ship with scowling faces and angry gest- 
ures ; and so, although De Monts saw many 
pleasant spots up among the deep sheltered 
bays, and would have been very glad to settle 
there and hunt and fish, yet the natives seemed 
so unfriendly that he gave up the idea and went 
back to St. Croix for awhile, and then finally 
sailed across the bay and settled at Port Royal, 
in Acadia, the home of Poutrincourt. 

But Champlain could not remain content 
with the idle life that was led there. He was 
constantly making expeditions into the great 
forests, and learning all that he could about the 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE, 275 

country; he went back to France too, and 
while there a company of merchants employed 
him to explore the country from Maine to the 
St. Lawrence. He started off on his travels 
as soon as he returned to America, and push- 
ing through the forests of Maine and Canada, 
travelling for the greater part of the way in 
an Indian canoe, came at last to the St. Law- 
rence, and floating down the mighty stream to 
Stadacona, the old resting place of Jacques 
Cartier, built there a fort in July, 1608. Here 
he remained for many months, visiting all the 
country round, going up and down the St. 
Lawrence, and learning its islands and tribu- 
taries, and giving names to rivers, islands, and 
lakes which they keep to this day. In the spring 
the men laid out garden plots and planted them 
carefully, so that they would have corn and 
vegetables for the next winter ; and as soon as 
the planting was done, and everything in good 
order, Champlain started off on one of his trips, 
which proved to be the most interesting he had 
ever undertaken. 

He was accompanied by a large party of his 



276 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 



men, and in his journey met, as agreed upon, 
the Indians of Canada in an expedition against 
the Iroquois, the tribes of what is now known as 
New York State. He met his Indian friends at 
the mouth of the Iroquois River, now called the 
Richelieu ; they were very glad to see him and 
his men, for they knew that they would be of 
great help in the coming battle, and probably 
be the means of their defeating the Iroquois. 
Champlain noticed the beauty of this river, 
which he had never sailed on before, and asked 
his guides where it came from. They told him it 
came from a beautiful lake not very far away, 
and which he could easily reach with his vessel. 
But he soon found that this was not true : the 
river grew narrower and narrower, and the bed 
became so rocky and steep that the Indians at 
last confessed that they had deceived him in the 
hope that he would join in the coming battle. 
But as soon as Champlain saw that he could not 
reach the lake in his own vessel, he sent it back 
to Quebec, only being able to persuade two of 
his men to go on with him. The rest of the 
journey was made in the canoes, and although 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 2/7 

there were many dangerous places in the river 
— falls and rapids and immense boulders that 
almost blocked the way — still, by landing and 
carrying the canoes around the worst places, 
they at last came to smooth water without hav- 
ing lost a single boat. And then Champlain 
saw, as they floated into this shining stretch of 
water, that of all the lakes he had seen in Maine 
or Canada none was so beautiful as this. For 
miles and miles ahead its waves glistened in the 
July sunlight, and everywhere lovely islands 
appeared; the shores were bordered with mag- 
nificent trees and covered with luxuriant vines ; 
on one side rose the wooded heights of Ver- 
mont, and on the other the white peaks of the 
Adirondacks, and as the admiring party slowly 
coasted along, visiting the little bays and islands, 
and gathering the wild flowers and strawberries 
that grew in abundance, they felt well rewarded 
for their difficult journey. 

Champlain gave the lake his own name, 
which it bears to this day in honor of its great 
discoverer. 

Two or three days passed very peacefully, 



278 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

and it seemed they had only come to that beau- 
tiful place for quiet and enjoyment ; but one 
evening, just as the dusk was creeping over the 
lake, they saw the dark faces of the Iroquois 
looking down at them from the leafy heights 
above. The Canadian Indians gave a shrill 
cry at the sight, and all that night the two tribes 
shrieked defiance at one another, and waited 
impatiently for the sunrise, which was to be the 
signal for the battle to begin. At break of day 
the Iroquois stood ready for battle, awaiting 
the attack of the Canadians, who all this time 
had kept Champlain and his friends hidden 
from the sight of their enemies. Now they 
formed in ranks, still keeping their white friends 
concealed, and marched slowly toward the Iro- 
quois, who were eager for the fight. But before 
a single arrow was shot the ranks of the Cana- 
dians opened, and Champlain came coolly to 
the front and fired his gun. The Iroquois 
were terrified, having never before seen such a 
weapon, and when they saw that two of their 
number were wounded, they became still more 
afraid ; and thinking that Champlain was a god, 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 279 

and held a magic instrument in his hand against 
which it would be useless ^o fight, they turned 
and fled into the woods, pursued by the Cana- 
dians, who were delighted at the success of their 
trick, and shrieked out their joy over their easy 
victory. But the Iroquois went on, not heed- 
ing their enemies' triumphant cries, and did not 
consider themselves safe until they reached their 
own peaceful valleys, hidden away among the 
Adirondacks ; and years and years after that 
the children of the tribe, as they gathered the 
water-lilies from the beautiful mountain lakes, 
or wandered among the woods plucking dainty 
flowers and waxen Indian pipes, would tell with 
wonder and awe the story of the great white 
god and his magic weapon, and how by his aid 
the brave Iroquois, always before victorious in 
battle, had been defeated on the shores of that 
distant lake which lay beyond the slopes of 
their snow-capped mountains. 

But the Canadians went home rejoicing, and 
Champlain went back to Quebec, and told of 
his discovery, and placed the new lake on his 
maps with much pride, and wrote in his journal 



28o THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

an account of his journey thither, which, when 
the French people at home read it, pleased them 
so much that they were more determined than 
ever that the whole of that beautiful region 
should belong to France, and to no other 
country. And Champlain lived in honor at Que- 
bec until his death, in 1635 ; but his name will 
never be forgotten, for it is heard year after 
year, and echoed again and again, among the 
trees that fringe the shores, and the mountains 
that overlook the beautiful lake that he discov- 
ered. 

But in the meantime the English had not 
been idle. The year after DeMonts left France 
the English also sent an expedition to the north- 
ern part of what they then called Virginia. The 
leader was George Weymouth, and the name of 
the vessel was the Archangel. After a pleas- 
ant voyage they landed in May on Monhegan 
Island, south of Maine, near Pemaquid Point. 
After the long sea voyage the men were glad 
to get on land again, and delighted with the isl- 
and, which had fine shade trees, cool streams of 
fresh water, and was covered with gooseberries, 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 28 1 

Strawberries, roses and violets, which grew down 
to the water's edge. But pleasant as this was, 
they made only a short stay here, and went on 
along the coast and up some of the large rivers 
to find a good place for a settlement. They 
sailed in and out among the many bays, and 
everywhere found the country as pleasant as 
their first view of it. Everywhere were good 
harbors, forests full of deer and other game, 
trees for ship-building, acres and acres of fertile 
ground for raising crops, and miles of meadow 
land, through which ran the brooks that had 
come rushing down from the high lands. The 
men declared that the peas and barley grew half 
an inch a day, and said that it was impossible 
to describe the beauty and goodness of the 
land. 

The Indians, too, were of orderly and peace- 
ful habits, the different tribes living for the most 
part very quietly. The principal tribe was the 
Abnakis, and it was their custom to dwell in vil- 
lages and to till the soil. The principal villages 
were on the banks of the Kennebec, the An- 
droscoggin and the Saco. They were all en- 



282 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE, 

closed with high paUsades for defence against 
enemies, and the wigwams were very comforta- 
ble, being built of bended poles and covered with 
bark and moss. These Indians had gardens 
well laid out in regular manner, and raised corn 
and peas and beans. They prepared the ground 
as soon as the snow melted, and planted their 
corn early in June, making holes in the ground 
with their fingers or with little sticks. 

The Abnakis were also fond of ornamenting 
their dress with fringes of feathers and shells 
and stones, and always wore a great number of 
rings, bracelets, necklaces, and belts embroid- 
ered with shells and pearls. But the English 
never could win the Indian hearts as the French 
could. They never trusted them as they trusted 
the French, and when trouble arose between the 
English and French for the possession of Canada, 
the Indians always were ready to join with the 
French against the English, and showed their 
hatred and distrust in very cruel and savage 
ways. One reason for this was, that the French 
tried to win the Indians by kindness ; they did 
not show that contempt for them which the 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 283 

English nearly always showed, and they tried in 
every way to be just in their dealings with them. 
They learned the different Indian languages so 
that they could talk easily with the natives, and 
in naming rivers and bays and islands, they kept 
many of the poetical Indian names, which the 
Enoflish would never take the trouble to learn 
to pronounce. And then, too, it was always 
very easy for the French to adopt the habits of 
the Indians. Frenchmen would sleep in wig- 
wams and eat Indian bread, and wear the Indian 
dress, travel in birch-bark canoes, and hunt 
Indian fashion. All this was very different from 
the English, who, wherever they went, changed 
the names of places for English names, and in- 
sisted on the Indians learning the English way 
of doino- thinors. 

And so the Indians grew to love the French, 
who were always kind to them in health, and 
whose gentle priests nursed them carefully in 
sickness ; and by and by they came to learn 
many useful things, and to adopt many French 
customs, which linger among their descendants 
to this day. 



284 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 



But all this made it very much harder for 
the English who tried to settle that part of the 
country, and Weymouth and his friends soon 
found that the natives looked upon them with 
distrust and dislike ; and very good reason they 
had for this, as the English captain, the first 
chance he got, kept five Indians who had come 
on board his vessel and carried them off to 
England. 

Here they were looked upon as great curi- 
osities. Great crowds followed them about the 
streets, as they walked through London wrap- 
ped in their skin mantles, and with their strange 
head-dress of quills and feathers ; and none the 
less curiously did the Indians look at the Lon- 
doners, and at the fine buildings and palaces 
which adorned their famous city. 

The returned seamen reported that the coast 
of Maine would be an excellent place for an Eng- 
lish settlement, and gave wonderful descriptions 
of the fine climate, rich soil, and good fishing, 
and praised the country so much that from their 
accounts, and from the stories of the kidnapped 
Indians, some English gentlemen decided to be- 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 285 

gin a settlement there at once. There were 
plenty of men willing to go to a place where 
the sailors said one could gather pearls on the 
beach, and where the trees oozed gum as sweet 
as frankincense, and very soon a ship was sent 
out to explore the country still farther, and take 
Nahanada, one of the captive Indians, back to 
his tribe at Pemaquid. 

In 1607 two other ships left England also, 
and on one of them was the Indian Skitwanoes, 
who was to act as guide and interpreter. 

They landed in July, and immediately re- 
ceived visits from Indians on the coast who 
came to trade ; and after spending a week in 
visiting the islands near, a boat was sent up the 
river to an Indian village in Pemaquid. Skit- 
wanoes went with this party to show them the 
way, and had it not been for his presence the 
English would have been met with a shower of 
arrows, for as soon as they came in sight of the 
village the Indians started up, and snatching up 
their bows, would have begun fighting at once, 
had not Skitwanoes stepped in front of the 
party and called the angry chief by name. It 



286 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

was Nahanada, the Indian who had been sent 
back from England the year before ; as soon 
as he recognized Skitwanoes and saw that his 
friends were Englishmen, he dropped his wea- 
pons and went up to his visitors, and welcomed 
them and kissed them in true Indian fashion. 
After a pleasant visit of some hours they re- 
turned to the ship, and in a few days, after 
choosing a good spot on the banks of a river, 
built a fort and some houses, and the place 
soon looked like a thriving little settlement. 
Some timber was cut and seasoned for the 
building of a ship, which was named the Vir- 
ginia, the first vessel ever built by English set- 
tlers in America. 

The Indians looked on all these preparations 
with wonder. For the first time they saw sub- 
stantial houses that would protect the inmates 
from snow and cold ; and the fort, with its twelve 
mounted guns, looked as if the new-comers 
meant to stay, and if need be fight for the new 
homes that had been made with such trouble. 
But there was one thing the natives could not 
understand, and that was what right these white 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 28/ 

men had to come and take away one of their 
favorite spots, and make it their own without 
paying for it, or even asking for it. It seemed 
to them very unfair that they must lose their 
property in this way, and they soon began to 
show the settlers that they were very much 
displeased. They became very troublesome, 
refused to trade with the English, and showed 
their ill-will in many ways ; and this was very 
discouraging to the English, who wanted to get 
along peaceably ; and so many of them, before 
the winter was over, became disheartened at 
the thought of living in such a cold, dreary 
region, surrounded by bitter foes, and sailed 
back to England again in the Virginia, on her 
first voyage to the old country. 

As time went on the Indians grew more and 
more troublesome, sometimes even coming in- 
side the fort ; and once the settlers became so 
angry that they set the dogs on them and drove 
them back to the woods. But this only made 
matters worse, and when a party went up the 
river to explore the country, they found that the 
other tribes were just as unfriendly, and that, 



288 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

excepting the chief Nahanada, they had not a 
friend among the natives. 

The second winter was as severe as the first, 
and quite discouraged the colonists, who could 
get very little to eat, as their storehouse had 
been burned by the Indians; and so when 
spring came and they had a chance to leave 
Maine they all went back to England, and the 
settlement of Maine by the English was given 
up for many years. The next attempt to set- 
tle this coast was made by the French, who, 
not satisfied with claiming Acadia and Canada, 
wanted also to get possession of Maine, which 
had been so often described as a good place 
for settlement. In 1613 Madame la Marquise 
de Guercheville, a wealthy Catholic, and some 
French priests sailed from France to make 
a settlement at Kadesquit on the Penobscot ; 
but, arriving at the coast in a heavy fog, they 
did not reach the mouth of the Penobscot, and, 
after waiting two days for the fog to lift, found 
themselves near Mt. Desert island. The grand 
and beautiful scenery of this island pleased 
them so much that they sailed up into French- 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 289 



men's Bay, and made a landing on the coast, 
intending to stay there awhile before going on. 
A number of Indian villages were scattered 
over the island, and as soon as the French 
landed they saw smoke arising, and knew by 
that that the natives had seen them, and that 
the smoke was meant for a signal ; so they 
built a fire in answer, and the Indians soon 
came flocking down to the beach in great haste 
to see the strangers. One of the priests. Fa- 
ther Biard, had met some of these Indians 
before on his former visit to the Penobscot, 
and he now asked them the way to Kadesquit. 
But the cunning Indians did not want their 
white visitors to go on to Kadesquit ; they 
wanted them to stay there with them, so they 
told them that their own island was a much bet- 
ter place than Kadesquit. They pointed to the 
mountains covered with spruce and pine, and to 
the sparkling brooks, fringed with delicate wild 
flowers, and to the moss-covered rocks, and 
clusters of dainty ferns, and said that this fair spot 
was as healthful as it was beautiful, and that all 

the neighboring tribes sent their sick to them 
13 



290 THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 

to be cured by the pure air and delightful 
waters. But Father Biard was quite deter- 
mined to go on to Kadesquit, and the Indians, 
seeing this, gave up coaxing and instead begged 
of him to visit their sick chief, who, they feared, 
was going to die. Kind Father Biard consented 
very willingly to go and see the sick man, and 
when he reached his home, which was on a bay 
in the eastern part of the island, he found the 
place so beautiful that he quite gave up Kades- 
quit, and decided to stay there. 

So they raised a cross, built some huts, and 
planted corn, for it was in the early summer, with 
many long months of warm weather still to come. 

But the settlement that was begun in such 
pleasant weather, and with such good will from 
the natives, came soon to a sad end ; for an Eng- 
lish captain from Jamestown, who was sailing 
along the coast, was very angry when he found 
that the French had begun a settlement, and 
asked the Indians to show him the way thither ; 
and they, thinking that the English and French 
were friends, and that the captain wanted to get 
provisions from the priests, led the way, and, as 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE. 29 1 

most of the French were away from the camps, 
the captain had no difficulty in seizing the place, 
and in two days he had plundered it of every- 
thing, and, driving some of the men away in a 
boat, took Father Biard and the rest with him 
to Jamestown ; the English gov.ernor there said 
that the captain had done quite right, and sent 
him back to destroy all the French settlements 
in Acadia too. The captain was very glad to 
do this, and landing first at Mt. Desert, he cut 
clown the French cross, and then went on his 
way to Port Royal, where Poutrincourt's son, 
Biencourt, was ruling ; and here the English did 
as they had done at other French settlements on 
their way, for Biencourt had few men and could 
make no resistance. The English destroyed 
Port Royal, its fort and monuments and church, 
and even chiselled out the name of De Monts 
that was engraved in a stone column, and so 
the French were driven out of Acadia, and not 
a single cross remained upon the coast of Maine 
to show they had ever been there. 

The English themselves did not make any 
permanent settlement there till 1629. 



CHAPTER XX. 

HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 

Henry Hudson was the first white man who 
ever sailed up the Hudson River. He was an 
EngHsh sailor in the service of the Dutch, who 
sent him on a voyage to North America. While 
sailinof alono- the Atlantic coast he entered the 
bay of New York, and passing inland discov- 
ered the beautiful river that bears his name. 
He was charmed with its clear waters and 
banks which were covered with grass and flow- 
ers and trees, and said that the country through 
which it flowed was " as beautiful as one could 
tread upon." 

The vessel was called the Half Moon, and 
had a crew of English and Dutch — Hudson's 
own son being of the number. As they sailed 
up the river the Indians put out from the shore 
in their canoes and paddled up to the Half 
Moon. Hudson would not let them come on 




THE HALF-MOON IN THE HUDSON. 



HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 293 

board at first, as one of his sailors had been 
killed by an Indian ; but as they seemed very 
friendly, the sailors at last grew less timid, and 
traded with them, giving them beads, knives, 
hatchets, etc., for the grapes, pumpkins, and furs 
which they brought, and after a time Hudson 
and his men went on shore and visited the coun- 
try around. 

Hudson sailed up the river as far as he could 
with the Half Moon, and then sent a small boat 
as far up as Albany. He was hoping to find a 
strait through which he could sail to India ; but 
of course he did not find that, so he turned back 
and sailed down the river again, and out into the 
ocean and back to Holland. 

Some time after he came back to America, 
and, sailing to the north, discovered Hudson's 
Bay ; while here his men became angry because 
they did not wish' to go any farther in such a 
region, and taking Hudson and his son and a 
few others, they bound them and put them in an 
open boat and set them adrift in the sea. No 
one ever heard of them again. It is supposed 
that the boat was dashed to pieces by the float- 



294 HENRY HUDSCnSf AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 

ing ice, and that the bold sailor and his compan- 
ions perished; but in the old stories of the Hud- 
son the legend runs that he and his companions 
did not die, but found their way down to the 
Catskills and Highlands ; and when it thunders 
they say it is Henry Hudson and his crew roll- 
ing their ninepins among the hills. 

How that is we do not know. If the brave 
sailor and his friends really are living there yet, 
why, we must admit they could not have chosen 
a lovelier place, for nowhere in the world is a 
fairer spot than where the Hudson goes down 
to the sea, passing on its way the misty blue 
Catskills, rich with stories of fairies and legends 
of the old Dutch sailors, and the beautiful High- 
lands, which stand strong and firm, as if protect- 
ing the bright river that sweeps around their 
base. 

This happened over two hundred and sev- 
enty years ago, in the year 1609, two years after 
the settlement of Jamestown by the English. 

About five years after a company of Dutch 
came to trade with the Indians, and just as their 
ship was ready to sail home again it caught fire 



HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 295 

and burned up ; so they had to stay all winter 
with the Indians. They had landed on Man- 
hattan Island, on which the City of New York 
now stands, and from this time the Dutch began 
comine there to trade with the Indians, and 
after a few years they bought the island, paying 
about one hundred and twenty-five dollars for it. 

The little Dutch children used to do very 
much as the little New York children do now. 
They had their lessons and their games ; and 
although they learned in a different way and 
about different things, still they played a good 
deal and worked a very little, as is the way of 
children all the world over. 

Perhaps, though, you would like to imagine 
yourself a little Dutch child living in New York 
(or New Amsterdam, as it was then called, after 
the city of Amsterdam in Holland) over two 
hundred years ago. 

Well, in the first place, you would not be 
living in a tall, narrow house of brown stone or 
red brick, standing in a row with thirty other 
houses just like it. You would be living in a 
wooden house with a gable roof like a country 



296 HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 

church, and the ends of the house would be 
made of black and yellow bricks. Over the 
door would be some iron letters telline when 
the house was built, and on the roof a gay 
weather-cock would be standing. When you 
came in from the street on a winter day and 
wanted t;o warm yourself, you would go up to a 
great open fireplace and sit up in the corner 
of it, close to where the great logs of wood were 
burning. 

The fireplaces were all tiled as many of 
those in new houses are now, only the tiles then 
were all arranged so as to tell some story, usu- 
ally from the Bible, and around one fireplace you 
would read the story of Noah and the Ark ; 
around another, the story of the children of 
Israel crossing the Red Sea, and so on. 

The floors were not covered with carpet, but 
every day they were sprinkled with fresh white 
sand, and the little Dutch girls were taught how 
to draw pretty figures on the sand with their 
birch brooms ; and at night, when they gath- 
ered around to listen to the stories of the Cats- 
kill fairies, the room would not be lighted with 



HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 297 

gas or lamps, but with great pine knots or tallow- 
candles, which with the flames from the wood 
fire made the room full of queer shadows ; and I 
do not doubt that oftentimes the little girls and 
boys were just a little bit afraid to go to bed 
after listeninsf to some of these tales of Hen- 
drick Hudson and Rip Van Winkle, and their 
queer adventures among the mountains up the 
river. 

But the best time in all the year was at 
Christmas, when the Dutch kept the feast of 
Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas. What a gather- 
ing then of all the little folks ! what games were 
played over the nicely sanded floors ! and what 
a treat to sit around the great fire and eat the 
sweet cakes and crullers, which no one but 
Dutch mothers knew how to make so well ! And 
you must remember, when at Christmas you have 
your Christmas tree and invite your little friends 
to come and spend the evening with you, that 
you are doing the very thing that the little 
Dutch boys and girls did in New Amsterdam 
over two hundred years ago ; and when your 

mamma stands in the parlor on New-year's-day 
13* 



298 HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS. 

ready to receive callers, she is doing just what 
the Dutch mammas did so long ago ; and at 
Easter when you have presents of colored eggs 
and ask your playmates to hunt for the nests 
which you have hidden away, remember that 
this, also, was a Dutch custom, for the Dutch 
were great people for holidays, and to this day 
many of the Dutch manners and customs are 
to be found among the New Yorkers who are 
proud to claim descent from the honest and 
hospitable Knickerbockers, who looked on life 
as a thing to be enjoyed, and who have left 
such pleasant customs to us, as the keeping of 
Christmas, New Year, Easter, and other holi- 
days. 

One morning, about fifty years after the 
Dutch first settled on Manhattan Island, a fleet 
of English vessels was seen in New York Bay, 
and by and by a letter was brought from the 
English commander to Peter Stuyvesant, the 
governor of New Amsterdam, asking him to 
give the town up to the English. The English 
king, Charles II., thought that as the Cabots had 
first discovered this part of America, the Eng- 



HENRV HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS, 299 

lish had more right to it than the Dutch, and 
he sent a fleet across the sea and demanded the 
Dutch to give up the town. 

Governor Stuyvesant got into a dreadful 
rage at this, and stumped wrathfully arotfnd on 
his wooden leg, and threatened dreadful things 
if the English did not hoist sail and go away 
again ; but it all did no good ; the Dutch peo- 
ple themselves thought that they would be bet- 
ter governed, and also better protected from the 
Indians, if they were ruled by the English ; so 
they made Governor Stuyvesant give their city 
up to the English, who changed its name to 
New York, in honor of the king's brother, the 
Duke of York, to whom the king had given all 
the Dutch possessions in America. But for 
years and years the Dutch language and cus- 
toms held their own in the city, and there are 
many things about it still which show that it 
was originally a Dutch settlement. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE PILGRIMS AND THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW 
ENGLAND. 

About two hundred and fifty years ago, 
there was living in England a class of people 
who did not think it right to worship God in 
the same way that most of the English nation 
did ; they did not believe in building so many 
fine churches and cathedrals, or in having so 
much chanting and singing in the service ; they 
did not like to see the priests, dressed in rich 
robes, standing before mao^nificent altars where- 
on candles blazed and incense burned. They 
said that this was all wrong, and that the money 
that was spent in fine churches and music and 
candles was only wasted, and that such things 
were not pleasing to God ; and above all they 
did not believe many of the things which the 
English Church held sacred. So all these peo- 
ple refused to go to church ; they stayed at 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND, 3OI 

home and had meeting at their houses, much in 
the same way that people now, who Hve far 
away from churches, meet at one another's 
houses and have prayer-meeting. 

But the king of England, James L, said that 
these people had no right to stay away from 
church, and he made a law which said that 
every one who did not go to church should be 
punished. 

These punishments were very severe, and 
the people were even sometimes afraid of their 
lives. After this law was passed they did not 
dare any more to go to meeting openly, but 
used to meet at night at their minister's house. 

At last things got so bad that they decided 
to go away from England, and find some place 
where they could worship God as they thought 
right ; so they sold their houses and lands, 
gathered their families together, and one day 
sailed away for Holland. 

The king's officers, however, were looking 
out for them, and some of them were captured 
before they could get on the ship and taken 
to prison, where they were kept many weary 



302 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

months ; but finally as many of these people 
as wanted to found their way to Holland. Here 
they lived very quietly for eleven years, the 
Hollanders being very willing to have them 
among them, as they were a very peaceable, 
honest, and kindly people. 

But after a time the Pilgrims — for so these 
people were called — did not like it so well in 
Holland as they did at first, for they found that 
their children were growing up to be Dutch 
children instead of English ; their sons and 
daughters began to marry into the families of 
their Dutch neighbors, and they feared that in 
a few years they would no longer consider them- 
selves English. The Pilgrims were still very 
fond of England and everything English. Their 
language and customs were still dear to them, 
> and they considered themselves Englishmen in 
every way. 

So the principal men met together and talked 
the matter over, and at last decided that they 
would leave Holland and seek some other place 
where their children would hear only English 
spoken and learn only English habits. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 303 

As they could not think of any place in Eu- 
rope where it would be safe for them to go, 
they all agreed that the best thing for them to 
do would be to sail away across the ocean to the 
New World, where they would be free to worship 
as they pleased, and where they would make a 
little colony by themselves. 

There were so many Pilgrims in Holland at 
this time that they could not all go to America 
at once, as they did not have enough ships or 
money to undertake such a voyage ; so they 
chose some of the youngest and strongest who 
were most willing to go, and one sunny morning 
in the month of July, 1620, a little ship sailed 
away from Holland, carrying with it the brave- 
hearted Pilgrims who were so determined to 
seek a home across the sea. 

The voyage was very long, the weather cold 
and stormy, and many times the little May- 
flower seemed to make no headway against the 
rough winds and waves ; but at last, after long 
waiting, they saw the shores of the New World. 
For a month they sailed up and down the coast 
looking for a good place to land. They had 



304 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

expected to go to the Hudson River, but the 
storms drove them farther north, and the first 
land that they saw was the coast of Massachu- 
setts. 

It was not a very pleasant-looking country — 
with low sand hills, and no sign of grass or flow- 
er ; but the pines looked fresh and green, and 
the Pilofrims were determined not to be discour- 
aged. They sent little expeditions to the shore 
to look for a good place to land, and finally one 
day they all left the ship at a place which Cap- 
tain John Smith had named Plymouth, and here 
they resolved to stay. 

If you should ever go to Plymouth you 
would see in the Hall there some of the curious 
old furniture which the Pilgrims brought with 
them — old-fashioned armchairs and queer spin- 
ning-wheels, ladles, wooden spoons, a great 
iron dinner-kettle said to have been owned by 
Miles Standish, and the " samplers " which little 
Lora Standish worked. Perhaps the thing that 
you children would like best would be the old- 
fashioned cradle wherein slept the little Pere- 
grine White, who was born on board the May- 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 305 

flower. It is not a very fine cradle, not trimmed 
with silk and dainty laces, but the little English 
baby slept in it very comfortably, and every one 
will admit that it is the most interesting- cradle 
in America to-day. 

It was on December 21st that the Pilgrims 
landed, and you can imagine how cold and 
bleak it was down there by the sea ; the first 
thing they did was to build a house, a large 
one that would hold them all ; and they lived 
in this until they had time to build separate 
houses for the different families. These houses 
were built of logs, having tiny little windows in 
which oiled paper was put instead of glass. As 
soon as they could they built a church, of logs 
also, with four cannon on the top, to defend it 
from the Indians. 

The Pilgrims had a very hard time of it that 
first winter, they suffered very much from the 
cold and from sickness, and, worst of all, they 
had scarcely enough to eat ; nearly one half of 
them died before spring, but the rest were still 
not discouraged. They lived on game, killing 
deer and wild turkeys, and besides, being so 



306 THE SETTLEMENT Of'nEW ENGLAND. 

near the sea, they could catch fish. As soon as 
the weather grew warm enough they planted 
corn, and after that they got along much 
better. 

Seven or eight years after the Pilgrims 
landed, another company of English people 
came to America ; they, like the Pilgrims, left 
England because they could not worship there 
in the way they thought right. 

These people were called Puritans, but it 
made very little difference whether they called 
themselves Pilgrims or Puritans ; they were all 
alike Englishmen and had come to America for 
the same purpose ; they all suffered the same 
hardships and endured them bravely, for wher- 
ever the Englishman goes he takes a brave 
heart with him. 

The Puritans, looking for a good place for 
settlement, chose the peninsula of Shawmut, or 
Tri-mountain, which they found to be a place of 
" sweet and pleasant springs, and good land af- 
fording rich corn-fields and fruitful gardens," 
and here, in September, 1630, were laid the 
foundations of the City of Boston. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 307 

For many years the colonists could not 
raise any cattle on account of the wolves which 
roamed day and night through the forests. 
The Indians were sometimes friendly and would 
bring them corn, which the settlers would pay 
for in clothing, knives, etc. ; it is said that once 
one of the Indians gave a settler a peck of corn 
in exchange for a little puppy-dog. Whenever 
food was scarce they all shared alike, so that no 
one had more than another, and after a time, as 
they began to raise more crops and as the for- 
ests became cleared, they got along very nicely 
and lived as happily in their log-houses as if 
they had been marble palaces. 

To-day New England is famous for its beau- 
tiful villages, with their broad streets shaded 
with elms and their wide pleasant lawns and 
comfortable houses ; but if you could have seen 
a New England village two hundred and fifty 
years ago, it would have been a very different 
thing. 

If you had lived in those days your home 
would have been a log-house on the edge of a 
great deep forest. Imagine these little Eng- 



308 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

lish boys and girls going to bed in a room where 
the snow could drift in through the cracks, and 
where they could hear the wolves howling in 
the forests. How afraid they must have been, 
and how they must have snuggled under the 
covers and covered up their faces. 

Imagine going to a little church built of logs 
and having a flag waving from it, and cannon in 
front of it to protect it from the Indians. Some- 
times the people were called to church by the 
beating of a drum, and every man carried his 
musket with him, as no one knew when the In- 
dians might come. In these queer little churches, 
families did not sit together as they do now, but 
the men sat in one place, the women in another, 
and the children in another. There was always 
a man to keep the children in order, and well he 
did it too. No child dared smile in church, or 
he might be rapped on the knuckles for it. 
Every one had to go to church, whether he 
wanted to or not ; if any one was absent the 
" tithing man " was sent after him, and for many 
years after this custom was given up, the New 
England mothers used to frighten their children 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 309 

by telling them that the " tidy man " was com- 
ing when they were naughty. 

These children used to go to school in queer 
little log school-houses, and school was not the 
pleasant place to them that it is to you. Every- 
body had to be as solemn there as possible, 
and all the pupils used to' sit up stiffly and 
primly, and look as grave as little owls, for the 
schoolmaster was feared and respected next to 
the minister, and no New England child in that 
age would have thought of even smiling if 
the minister were present. The fathers and 
mothers were very solemn people too — life was 
such a serious thing to them, they thought it 
wicked to waste time amusing children. They 
did not even keep Christmas for many years, 
and the Puritan children did not know as much 
about Santa Claus as you do about the man in 
the moon. 

You must not think, however, that they were 
unhappy ; children always find some means of 
having a good time, even if fathers and mothers 
are stern and sober people ; and the Puritan 
fathers and mothers loved their children just as 



3IO THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

much as the Dutch fathers and mothers in New- 
York loved theirs, only they showed their love 
in a different way, that is all. And, after all, these 
little log school-houses were not such bad places 
— they were always sure to be near the woods, 
where were great shady trees, and if the chil- 
dren did not sing pretty songs in school as you 
do, they could at least hear the birds singing all 
day long ; if they had not bright pictures on the 
walls of the school-room, they had sweet, dainty 
wild flowers just outside, and the wind and trees 
and blossoms whispered their secrets to them ; 
and that is one reason perhaps why they grew 
up so good and true and brave. Thanksgiving 
Day was the one day in the year on which the 
Pilgrims did not think it wrong to be merry. 
Early in the day they went to church, which 
was held partly as a service of thanks for the 
harvest, and partly in grateful remembrance for 
the relief that came to them from England when 
they were suffering from famine. When church 
was over the fun began. All the members of a 
family from near and far were brought together 
on this day, and what gay times the children 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 31I 

had with their small cousins and nieces and 
nephews. What games and romps, and what 
interestinof talk around the fire as to who had 
gathered the most nuts, who had built the 
strongest and swiftest sled, and who had been 
bravest when the Indians came prowling around. 

For of all the troubles which the settlers of 
New England had to bear, the trouble with the 
Indians was the worst. 

At first they seemed to get along quite 
peaceably with them ; the chiefs of some of the 
tribes were very friendly and were kind to the 
colonists ; but as time went on the Indians grew 
more and more unfriendly, and the settlers lived 
in constant fear of them. 

Sometimes they would come in the night to 
a house where a mother was alone with her 
children, and kill them all and then set fire to 
the house. Sometimes a man would be working 
at a distance from his home, and go back there 
only to find that the Indians had been there be- 
fore him, and had taken his wife and children 
away with them to make slaves of them. 

The little children would go to bed at night 



312 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

and lie awake listening for the Indian warwhoop, 
which they dreaded even more than they did 
the howling of the wolves. Every woman in 
those days knew how to use a gun, and many a 
time a mother had to defend herself and chil- 
dren from some painted Indians who would 
come up to the house and ask to be taken in. 

About forty years after Boston was settled, 
these difficulties with the Indians brought about 
a war which extended over all that country. 
The most powerful of the Indians at that time 
was King Philip, chief of the Wamponoags. 
This tribe had always been friendly to the 
whites, Philip's father, Massasoit, having formed 
a treaty with the Puritans soon after their settle- 
ment in New England. 

King Philip was a very brave and good man, 
and for a time after his father's death he re- 
mained friendly to the whites ; but he saw that, 
no matter how friendly the whites seemed, they 
really were trying to get all the land from the 
Indians that they could, and he thought if he 
could drive the English away from his country 
it would be much better for his own people. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 313 

So he sent messengers to all the tribes from 
Maine to Connecticut, asking the chiefs to join 
with him and drive the whites away. All the 
chiefs promised to do this, and soon there was 
a terrible war all over New England. 

The Indians did not like to fight the whites 
in open field, but they used to come at night, 
creeping through the forest in the shadow of 
the trees, steal down the quiet little village 
street, and then, with dreadful shrieks and war- 
whoops, begin their horrible work. Sometimes 
they would not go away until everybody in the 
village had been killed, and the houses all 
burned. 

Sometimes they would go to lonely houses 
where the inmates were all quietly sleeping, and 
forming themselves into a ring, would dance 
around the house yelling and waving their 
torches, and the poor people would be awakened 
by this noise only to know that death awaited 
them. 

This war lasted nearly two years, and in that 

time many villages were burned, and many 

people killed ; but finally King Philip was killed, 
14 



314 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

and then the Indians lost heart, and in a short 
time there was peace again. 

For some years after this the colonists had 
no trouble with the Indians, but after a time 
war broke out again. This time the Indians 
were stronger and better armed, and besides 
they were helped by the French. 

For a long time the English and French had 
each been trying to gain possession of North 
America. The English said they had the best 
right to it, and the French said that they had 
the best right ; and so it went on, until the 
French and Indians agreed that they would join 
together and fight against the English. The 
Indians liked the French much better than they 
did the English, as they had always treated 
them better. 

Some of the French had married Indian 
wives, and they were looked upon by the In- 
dians as brothers. To this day in Canada you 
can see little dark-eyed boys and girls, who call 
themselves French, but whose ancestors were 
Indian and French. 

You will learn later that this struggle be- 



THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND, 315 

tween the French and Eno^Hsh lasted for more 
than half a century after the time of which I 
have been tellinq; and ended in a orreat war be- 
tween the nations, that extended in America 
all over the country that was then settled. 
But at last the English gained the day and the 
French gave up all the countr}^ that they had 
owned in America east of the Mississippi to the 
Enoflish, and that is how this country came to 
be under English rule. 

After the French and Indian wars were 
over the colonists had very little trouble with 
the Indians, and in a few years there was peace 
and quiet all over New England. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

LA SALLE. 

Many stories had been brought by the In- 
dians to the French settlers in Canada, of the 
great country that lay west of the St. Lawrence 
and the lakes; and now and then an adventurous 
trapper had visited the shores of Lake Michi- 
gan, and had heard these stories repeated by 
the tribes living there ; and then French priests 
found their way thither, and by and by it came 
to be believed that the country in the west was 
as well worth exploring as the shores of the 
Atlantic and St. Lawrence ; and travellers began 
to visit the new territory and to trade more ex- 
tensively with its natives, and to listen with be- 
lieving ears to their tales of a great river that 
flowed from the north away and away, hundreds 
of miles, to the sea. 

At that time France was very desirous of 
discovering a passage from the St. Lawrence 



LA SALLE. 317 

to the Pacific Ocean, and when this new 
river began to be so much talked about, it 
was wondered whether it might not flow into 
the Pacific. But some people thought different- 
ly ; they said that they had no doubt the great 
river flowed directly south and emptied into the 
Gulf of Mexico ; and, after a great deal of talk, it 
was decided to send an expedition from Canada 
to find this great river, and to see where it rose 
and into what it flowed. The principal men in 
the party were Louis Joliet, who had been sent 
from France to discover the passage to the Pa- 
cific, and Father Marquette, a French priest, 
whose long residence among the Indians, and 
the love and respect with which he had in- 
spired them, made him a very suitable com- 
panion for Joliet. 

They left Canada by the way of the St. 
Lawrence, and, passing through the Great 
Lakes, entered Lake Michigan, and sailed 
through its waters in Green Bay, At the head 
of this bay they came to the last French 
station near Canada. Hereafter their journey 
would be entirely among tribes of strange In- 



3l8 LA SALLE. 

dians. But at the little settlement on Green 
Bay they saw a cross that had been erected by 
some French priest, and which the natives had 
adorned with flowers ; and, encouraged by the 
thouorht that even on the farthest limit of French 
territory they were leaving friends, they started 
bravely for the undiscovered country, taking 
with them two Indian lads to show them the 
way to the Wisconsin River. Their canoes 
sailed up the beautiful waters of the Fox, whose 
fresh green banks and bordering trees gave 
promise of leading into a fair land beyond, and 
in a short time they had reached its head, and 
pushed out into the narrow channel, almost 
choked with wild rice, that led to the Wisconsin. 
The euides left them as soon as their canoes 
floated into the current of the larger river, and 
then their voyage began in earnest. 

They drifted down the Wisconsin for a week, 
examining the country carefully on both sides, 
and always looking out for the great river they 
had come to find ; and at the end of this time 
they saw, to their great joy, the shining waters 
of the Mississippi spreading out before them. 



LA SALLE. 319 

And now they were obliged to go more care- 
fully for fear of hostile Indians : they no longer 
spent their nights on the banks of the river, 
sleeping comfortably around a blazing camp- 
fire, but anchored their canoes out from shore, 
and stationed a sentinel to warn them of any 
danger that might come while they slept. Day 
after day they scanned the river-banks for sight 
of lurking foes, and night after night they rolled 
themselves in their blankets and went to sleep, 
expecting to be awakened by the war-whoop of 
the Indians ; but, search as they might, they 
could find no trace of human beino-s alone the 
river, and eight days passed before they saw a 
sign of friend or foe. On the ninth day they 
saw a well-worn path leading up from the river 
into the forest beyond. Joliet and Marquette 
sprang from their canoes and started up the 
path, while the rest of the party remained on 
the river to guard against surprise. 

A short walk brought the leaders to the In- 
dian village, which they were glad to find occu- 
pied by the friendly tribe of the Illinois. The 
chief welcomed them with uplifted hands, in to- 



320 LA SALLE. 

ken of friendly greeting, while his warriors gath- 
ered around him and waved the pipe of peace. 
And hardly had the Frenchmen responded to 
these greetings, when there came an invitation 
from the head chief of the whole tribe for the 
strangers to come to his village. They found 
him standing in front of his wigwam, with his cal- 
umet, or pipe of peace, raised toward the sun. 
He saluted them with a kiss, and invited them 
into his dwelling, where a banquet had been 
prepared. After partaking of this, the French- 
men were escorted through the village by the 
entire population, who accompanied them to 
their canoes and stood on the banks while 
they embarked. Then, as they pushed out 
from shore, they waved them pleasant farewells, 
and the visitors went away delighted with their 
kind welcome. The chief had given Marquette 
his calumet, which was carefully preserved, as 
he knew it would be of value in dealing with 
other tribes. 

And then they went on down the river, 
past the curious Painted Rocks and the 
mighty forests and rolling prairies, and saw one 



LA SALLE. 321 

day another large river flowing from the west 
— a rushing, mighty river, with turbid, yellow 
waves that would not mix with the clear waters 
of the Mississippi ; Marquette thought that per- 
haps this new stream might lead him to the 
western ocean, if he would trust his frail canoe 
to its guidance, and the Indians whom he found 
there said that it was quite true that the yellow 
river would take him into the distant prairies, 
which he could easily cross, carrying his canoe 
on his shoulders, and that a short journey would 
brinof him to another little stream which led into 
a small lake, from which started a deep river 
that flowed westward into the sea. 

But, although this sounded like very pleasant 
travelling, Marquette could not leave his com- 
panions just then, and they continued their voy- 
age down the Mississippi, passing the Ohio and 
Arkansas ; at which latter point, discouraged by 
the reports of the hostile tribes who lived farther 
down, and afraid of falling into the hands of the 
Spaniards if they reached the Gulf, they turned 
back and began a leisurely ascent of the Mis- 
sissippi. 

14* 



322 LA SALLE. 

They turned into the IlHnois when they 
reached that river, and journeyed up its winding 
course, delighted with its fertile basin, rich with 
fine forests, cattle, deer, goats, and beaver, and 
beautiful with clear streams and lovely lakes, on 
which floated great numbers of swans. When 
they reached the head of the river, an Indian 
chief guided them through the forests to Green 
Bay, which they reached in September, well 
satisfied with their journey, and convinced that 
the Mississippi led to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Joliet no sooner told the story of his expedi- 
tion than a gentleman of Normandy living in 
Canada resolved to undertake a journey to the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and to the Pacific. 
This man was Robert Cavalier de la Salle, and 
in August, 1679, he left Canada equipped for a 
voyage down the Mississippi; but, being de- 
tained by the loss of his vessel and an attack 
of the Iroquois upon the Illinois, who were the 
friends of the French, it was two years after 
that date, 1681, before he found himself actually 
on his way. 

They left by the way of the Chicago 



LA SALLE. 323 

River, which they travelled down in sledges, 
the river being frozen over, and even when they 
reached the Mississippi they were detained some 
days by the ice ; but at last they were able to 
begin the descent, and, like the former expedi- 
tion, passed many days before they came to an 
Indian village that was inhabited. 

The first notice they had of their approach to 
a settlement came from the drums and war-cries 
of the people who had assembled on the bank. 
La Salle immediately landed on the other side 
of the river ; and, setting his men to work, they 
soon had a fort built, and were prepared to 
defend themselves. The Indians, seeing this, 
changed their tactics, and sent some messengers 
across the river in a canoe. La Salle went 
down to the shore carrying the calumet, which 
was received by the savages with respect, and 
friendly feeling was at once established. 

The Frenchmen were very glad of this, as 
during the three days they spent there they 
learned many things about the Indians farther 
down the river, and were also well supplied with 
food for their journey ; for this village was sit- 



324 LA SALLE. 

uated in the midst of orchards and fields, and 
the people were very intelligent and courteous, 
having pleasant manners, and being liberal and 
hospitable. La Salle planted a cross bearing the 
arms of France, and parted from his new friends 
with many expressions of gratitude. The Indians 
sent with him some interpreters, who introduced 
him to a friendly tribe some distance farther 
down, and La Salle found these Indians also very 
intelligent and hospitable. He describes their 
houses as being built of mud and straw, with 
cane roofs, and furnished with bedsteads, tables, 
etc. They also had temples where their chiefs 
were buried, and wore white clothing spun from 
the bark of a tree. These were very different 
habits from those that La Salle had seen among 
the Indians in the north, and he concluded that 
he must be nearing the end of his journey. 

This proved to be true, for two weeks after 
he found the river dividing into three branches ; 
he took one branch and two of his men the 
others, and in a short time they found that the 
water was salt, and knew that they had reached 
the mouth of the river ; a little farther on they 



LA SALLE. 325 

saw the sea, and found that they had reached the 
Gulf of Mexico by the way of the Mississippi. 

On April 9, 1682, a cross was raised, upon 
which were inscribed the arms of France ; then, 
after a religious ceremony, La Salle took pos- 
session of the Mississippi and all its branches, 
together with all the lands bordering them, in 
the name of the king of France. A few days 
after he turned his face homeward ; but, being 
detained by sickness, did not reach Quebec un- 
til the next year. However, he had sent the 
accounts of his voyage on before him, and these 
had been forwarded to France ; and, after some 
delay, a new expedition left France, whither La 
Salle had gone ; the object of this expedition was 
to found a colony at the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. 

All might have gone well, had it not been 
for the jealousy of Beaujeu, the captain of the 
fleet, who refused to follow La Salle's advice 
about landing. As they coasted along the Gulf, 
from their ignorance of the coast, they passed 
the mouth of the Mississippi, and went farther 
westward than they had meant to. La Salle 



326 LA SALLE. 

wished to turn back and search for the mouth 
of the river, but Beaujeu refused to do this, and 
insisted upon entering- Matagorda Bay in Texas. 
Here La Salle was obliged to have his stores 
landed; and, as soon as this was done, Beaujeu 
sailed back to France again, caring little what 
became of his fellow-voyagers. 

But La Salle was not to be disheartened by 
such a mishap as this. He cheered the hearts 
of his men by his hopeful words, and they set 
about establishing the colony at once. They 
found the climate agreeable, and the natives 
friendly and willing to trade ; they belonged to 
the same race as those on the Mississippi, and, 
like them, lived in large villages, and had com- 
fortably furnished houses. La Salle had no 
fear in leaving his colony among these well-dis- 
posed natives; and, as soon as it was possible, 
he left his company and went in search of the 
Mississippi, which he had hopes of finding with- 
out difficulty. 

But the river was farther off than he knew, 
and he was an utter stranger to the country; 
and, although he turned again and again, two 



LA SALLE. 327 

years passed and he had not yet seen its shining 
waters. At last he determined to take half the 
colony and find his way to Canada, where he 
might obtain supplies, as they had received 
nothing from France since their arrival, owing 
to the bad report of La Salle that Beaujeu had 
taken back, 

Canada was two thousand miles away, but 
there were friends there, and the brave leader 
could not bear to see his countrymen suffering 
when it might be possible to bring them help. 
The little party of twenty was not very well 
equipped for a long journey through a strange 
country. They had to make clothing of the 
sails of one of the vessels ; their shoes were of 
buffalo-hide and deer-skin ; they had to make 
boats of skin to cross the swollen rivers, and 
they depended for food upon the game they 
could find. And so their progress was very 
slow, and it took them two months to reach 
Trinity River. 

But hardship was not the only thing that La 
Salle had to bear on this wearying march. 
Part of the men became dissatisfied with him, 



328 LA SALLE. 

and rebelled against his authority. They killed 
his nephew and a faithful Indian servant while 
they were absent from the camp on a hunting- 
expedition, and when La Salle appeared and 
asked where his nephew was, one of the mur- 
derers raised his gun and shot their leader 
dead. 

La Salle was one of the bravest and noblest 
of the French explorers. If he had been al- 
lowed to carry out his plans, France would have 
been stronger and richer in America than it was 
ever her fortune to become. It was ten years 
after his death before any other attempt was 
made to settle the Mississippi Valley. 

To La Salle belongs the honor of being the 
first European to sail from the upper part of the 
Mississippi down to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
it was he who started that spirit of advent- 
ure which led to so many Frenchmen devoting 
their lives to the exploration of the great river 
and its many branches, thus making the western 
part of the country familiar to the Europeans, 
and laying the foundations of the French power 
in the valley of the Mississippi ; and laying, at 



LA SALLE. 329 

the same time, the foundations of that firm and 
lasting friendship with the Indians which was 
the strongest safeguard of the French in Amer- 
ica ; for all the tribes along the great river and 
on the shores of the northern lakes grew to love 
and reverence the French name. 

They looked upon them as brothers, for 
they came to their humble villages and led 
the same simple lives that they themselves 
led. They hunted and fished with them, wore 
the same kind of clothing, and slept content- 
edly in their rude wigwams. They talked 
with them in their own language, and called 
their lakes and streams by their poetical In- 
dian names. They even married the daugh- 
ters of their race, and the kindly French 
priests knew no difference between white man 
and red man, but ministered to all alike. 
The Indians freely entered the little chapels 
that were scattered up and down along the 
river, and lovingly hung the cross with flow- 
ers ; and little Indian children were brought 
there to be baptized, just as the little French 
children were, and all was peace and harmony. 



330 LA SALLE. 

And the calumet never passed from chief to 
chief but as a sign of peace, and of the abiding 
friendship which began when Marquette was 
greeted by the IlHnois chief with hands raised 
toward heaven, as if calHng down the blessing 
of the Great Spirit upon the meeting. 




THE DKIVINO OUT OF THE ACADIANS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE STORY OF ACADIA. 

Once upon a time, in a country in the north 
dwelt a very happy race of people. The land 
did not lie so far north but that it had bright 
springs and sunny summers, and all through 
the valleys lay pretty little villages surrounded 
with orchards and fields and meadows. And 
little dark-eyed children wandered through the 
orchards in the morning sunshine, and broke 
off boughs of pink-tinted blossoms whereon the 
dew lay not yet dried, and through green- 
carpeted fields, where the young grain waved, 
and through the high meadow-grass, gathering 
daisies and sweet, wild forget-me-nots. All 
day long the place was bright and happy with 
children's faces and children's voices. 

The tiny streams that crept down from the 
mountains loved the little faces that leaned over 
them, and the little hands that threw dainty 



332 THE STORY OF ACADIA. 

flowers on their merry, rippling waves ; even 
the birds that flew down into shady, silent cor- 
ners to drink showed no fear if, perchance, they 
found a little child there before them. The 
wind that sung through the pines at the foot 
of the mountain sung only words of peace, and 
the whole place seemed only to know blue 
skies, sweet fragrant breezes, and floods of 
golden sunshine. 

And when the bright, happy days came to an 
end, then the children would gather on the door- 
steps of the quaint little houses, and, while they 
watched the moon rise large and silvery over 
the spire of the church, they would listen to the 
stories told by their fathers and mothers of the 
land beyond the great sea, which their ancestors 
had sailed away from forever when they came 
to find a new home in this northern land. 

The children dearly loved to hear the stories 
of that far-away France which their great-grand- 
fathers and great-grandmothers but dimly re- 
membered ; for, although their own homes were 
in America, they always thought of themselves 
as French. They knew nothing of England -or 



THE STORY OF ACADIA. 333 

English customs, and English children would 
have seemed strangers to them, while the little 
Indian boys and girls with whom they played 
seemed dear and familiar friends ; for in this 
northern land, which the French people called 
Acadia because it was such a lovely and beau- 
tiful place, the Indians had always been well 
treated by the whites, and they were very fond 
of them in return. 

The Indian children played in the streets 
with the French children, and wandered with 
them through the meadows and forests. The 
Indian fathers and mothers went to the village 
churches, and learned of the good priests how to 
lead useful and happy lives ; and they brought 
their children to be baptized and confirmed, and 
wanted them to grow up knowing how to live 
the same kind of lives that their little French 
neighbors would live when they grew up. 

And so for many years these people lived in 
this pleasant country, and were contented and 
happy. But by and by trouble came. Acadia 
was taken away from the French and given to 
the English, who sent their soldiers there. The 



334 THE STORY OF ACADIA. 

Acadians were very sorry for this ; they did not 
want to belong to England, for they were 
French and loved France. At that time both 
England and France had armies in America, 
and both were trying to get as much land as 
they could ; and, as the English were the more 
successful in this war, they got possession of 
Acadia and changed its name to Nova Scotia. 

Then there was an English governor sent 
there to rule the country; and, although the 
Acadians loved the French, they promised not 
to help them, but said they would give help 
neither to the English nor the French. 

But the English were not satisfied with this. 
They were all the time afraid that the Acadians 
would help the French. So one day the Eng- 
lish commander sent a fleet of vessels to Acadia, 
and all the Acadians were told to gather in the 
churches and listen to the reading of some pa- 
pers that had been sent there by him ; the Aca- 
dians came, but no sooner were they all gath- 
ered together than the English soldiers drove 
them all down to the harbor, where the ships 
lay. Then they were driven on the ships in 



THE STORY OF ACADIA. 335 

crowds, and neighbors and friends and families 
were all separated ; perhaps a father in one 
ship, a mother in another, and their children in 
a third. There was no time to say good-by to 
their pretty little homes — no time to say good- 
by to dear friends. 

As soon as they had been crowded on the 
ships the soldiers set fire to their homes, and 
soon the peaceful villages of Acadia were ut- 
terly destroyed. Nothing remained of the once 
lovely place but heaps of ashes, burned fields, 
and desolate tracts of country. 

The ships sailed away to different ports, and 
the Acadians were scattered all over the coun- 
try. Friends who had been separated often 
never met again, and the little boys and girls 
who had played so happily in the green fields 
of Acadia were now to go sorrowing all their 
lives for the dear playmates they would never 
see again. 

It was a very cruel thing to do. It was an 
act unworthy the heart of an English soldier, 
who could not but remember his own home in 
fair, green England. It was something that the 



336 THE STORY OF ACADIA. 



Enoflish oucrht to have been ashamed to do, for 
the Acadians were a peaceful people and not 
likely to make them any trouble. 

But sometimes, in war, men forget that they 
are men, and act cruelly and wrongly ; and that 
is what the English did when they drove the 
Acadians from their homes to wander homeless 
and poor and sad all over the country. 

If you should go to Nova Scotia to-day you 
would not find the Acadia of that far-off time. 
The country is English now, and the only mem- 
ories of Acadia are those that linger in the 
lonely mountain echoes, in the sad sighing of 
the pines, in the wild flowers of the meadow, 
which make you think of the children that once 
played there ; in the soft marmur of the streams, 
which seem to sing, as you listen, long-forgotten 
tunes ; and in the deep roar of the sea, on whose 
waves the Acadians were borne away forever 
from that beautiful, happy land which became 
but a dream of the past. 




THE STORY OF PONTIAC'S PLOT. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

There was once a little Indian boy whose 
home was on the shores of a beautiful lake in 
the midst of a deep forest. He was the son of 
a powerful chief, and from his earliest years 
looked forward to the time when he too should 
be a great warrior, like his father, and lead his 
tribe in successful battle against his enemies. 
For although his quiet home was far away 
from great cities, and most of the neighbor- 
ing tribes were friendly, yet some of the noise 
and stir and trouble of the great outside world 
had crept even to that distant woodland home ; 
and the children there early learned that they 
must grow up brave and daring men, and ready 
to defend their homes if need be. This boy 
Pontiac was always a leader among his com- 
panions in all games of daring and skill. He 

it was who led them into the forests in 
15 




THE STORY OF PONTIAC'S PLOT. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

There was once a little Indian boy whose 
home was on the shores of a beautiful lake in 
the midst of a deep forest. He was the son of 
a powerful chief, and from his earliest years 
looked forward to the time when he too should 
be a great warrior, like his father, and lead his 
tribe in successful battle against his enemies. 
For although his quiet home was far away 
from great cities, and most of the neighbor- 
ing tribes were friendly, yet some of the noise 
and stir and trouble of the great outside world 
had crept even to that distant woodland home ; 
and the children there early learned that they 
must grow up brave and daring men, and ready 
to defend their homes if need be. This boy 
Pontiac was always a leader among his com- 
panions in all games of daring and skill. He 

it was who led them into the forests in 
15 



338 THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

their hunt after wild, and ferocious animals, 
or by the courses of distant streams in search 
of rare flowers and stones, or along the shores 
of the lakes, where the startled birds made vain 
efforts to fly beyond his aim — for Pontiac's arrow 
was always swift and sure — and who carried 
home at night the largest part of the day's 
spoils, whether they were fishing in the lake, 
or hunting in the forest, or searching for the 
glittering minerals that were scattered over 
the land. 

And the years that he spent in childish 
sports were also spent in learning many 
useful things, and by the time he was a well- 
grown boy he knew every inch of the forests 
for miles and miles around, and all the winding 
streams that came down from the hill-country, 
and every curve and bay in the great lakes 
that lay not far distant from his home. Al- 
though he was a very daring and active boy, 
sometimes he was very thoughtful too, and 
he would often leave his companions and hide 
away in the branches of some great tree, or 
in some sheltered nook by the lake, and sit 



THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 339 

alone for hours thinkinpf. At such times he 
was often sad, for his thoughts were of his 
brave people, who had suffered so much and 
been so cruelly treated by the English. 

Pontiac had hated the English ever since 
he could remember, not because they were of 
a different race and strangers, for the French 
were of a different race and strangers too, but 
because, in all their dealings with the Indians, 
the English had always been cruel, treacherous, 
and ready to take advantage, while the French 
had always been kind, trustworthy, and ready 
to be the red man's friend. And as the boy 
grew into manhood the hatred still continued, 
for the English still continued to steal the In- 
dians' land and oppress them by unjust laws ; 
and when his father died, and he became chief 
over the powerful Ottawas, he resolved to do 
all that he could to drive the English from his 
native land, so that the Indians and kindly 
French alone should live there peaceably and 
happily. 

The Ottawas lived in the region lying be- 
tween Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, and the 



340 THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

neighboring tribes, the Chippeways, Wyandots, 
Senecas, and Pottawattomies, were also friends 
to the French and foes to the EngHsh, and ready 
to carry out any plan that the great chief Pontiac 
might propose. 

The French, who hated the English as much 
as the Indians did, looked on, and were very 
glad to see that Pontiac and the other chiefs 
were so bitter against their common enemy; 
and the French leaders did everything in their 
power to keep the English and Indians at war. 

At that time there was constant war between 
England and France, because each country 
thought she had the better right to America, 
and was trying to drive the other away. 

Already the Acadians had been driven from 
their home by English soldiers, and England 
had conquered all the Canadian towns ; and un- 
less something was done very soon, the Indians 
and French would have no chance at all, for the 
English were more and more successful all the 
time. So Pontiac thought of a very bold plan. 
He was not so afraid of the English soldiers as 
some of the chiefs, for once, when leading his 



THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 341 

brave Ottawas against the English under Gen- 
eral Braddock, he had seen them run before the 
attack of his men, and had come to the con- 
clusion that they were no braver than any 
other soldiers. The more he thought of his 
plan the better he liked it ; and at last he told 
it to the French, v^ho approved it heartily, 
and said they had no doubt of its success. 
They told Pontiac that the French king had 
been asleep for a while, and that was the reason 
the English had gained so many victories ; but 
that soon he would awake, and then he would 
drive the English away from the land of his 
" red children." 

This was good news to Pontiac, who dearly 
loved France, and he went home more resolved 
than ever to carry out his plan, which was — 
that on a certain day all the Indians should join 
together and attack all the English forts at once, 
and so drive their hated enemy from the country 
forever. So he called the chief men of his tribe 
together, and they all agreed that this would be 
an easy thing to do if the other tribes would 
join. And then Pontiac sent messengers to 



342 THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

every tribe between the Alleghany Mountains 
and the Mississippi ; the messengers carried a 
belt of red beads and a tomahawk stained red, 
which meant that Pontiac was inviting them to 
begin war. In every village the messengers 
entered, the chief took the belt and tomahawk 
and held them up before his people, as a sign 
that he was willing to fight, and would help Pon- 
tiac drive away the English. 

Soon afterward all the great chiefs met in 
council, and agreed on a day for the attack. It 
was to be May 7, 1763. Each chief was to lead 
his tribe against a certain fort, and the English 
were all to be murdered like dogs. But it hap- 
pened that all the forts were not attacked on 
that day after all. 

Pontiac was to attack Detroit, the strongest 
and most important of the forts. Before the ap- 
pointed day he went to the fort with a number 
of his men, and asked the commander to let 
them come in and give an Indian dance. The 
English officer and his men were very willing to 
do this, as life was very tedious away from home 
and friends, and they were glad of anything 



THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 343 

that would amuse them. So the Indians en- 
tered the fort, and went through their strange, 
outlandish dance ; but all the time they were 
looking carefully about the fort, seeing where it 
was strongest and where weakest, noticing the 
number of guns, and finding out about the pro- 
visions in case they should not be able to take it 
at once ; and as soon as they had seen all they 
wanted to they went away, and the English did 
not imamne for a moment the real reason of 
their coming. The next thing to do was to take 
the fort, and Pontiac thought if he could get in- 
side of the walls with some armed men, it would 
be a very easy thing to surprise the English, and 
thus make a successful attack. So he planned 
that he and his warriors should all go to the 
fort, carrying their guns hidden away under their 
blankets, and that they would ask the officer to 
let them come in and hold a council. Of course 
the officer would agree to this, seeing that they 
carried no weapons ; and then, as soon as they 
were inside the fort, they would, at a certain 
signal, kill all the white officers, and so take the 
soldiers by surprise. 



344 THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

This was a bold plan ; but all the warriors 
agreed to it, and waited impatiently for the time 
to come. 

But amonof the Indians was a beautiful 
maiden, who had learned to love and trust the 
English, and who could not bear to think of 
their being so cruelly murdered ; and she re- 
solved to save them if she could. She was 
used to eoinof in and out of the fort as she 
pleased, for she was a favorite with the officers, 
who had shown her many kindnesses ; and one 
day, before Pontiac had time to carry out his 
plan, she went to the fort, taking with her, as 
an excuse, a pair of moccasons as a present to 
Major Gladvvyn, the chief officer. But, when 
she came into the officer's presence, her cour- 
age failed her ; she knew what her own fate 
would be if her words were not heeded, and 
Pontiac should succeed after all ; and so, 
. she quite lost heart, and, laying the moc- 
casons down on the table, talked a little 
while with the major, and then went out with- 
out giving her warning. But when she was 
again outside, her troubled face attracted the 



THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 345 

notice of the sentinel, who immediately sus- 
pected some plot, and persuaded her to go 
back to Major Gladwyn. And then, after many 
promises of protection, she at length told him 
of Pontiac's plan, and warned him to be pre- 
pared. Major Gladwyn immediately began to 
make ready for Pontiac's visit, and when he 
appeared the next day, with fifty of his boldest 
warriors, all carrying their guns under their 
blankets, he found the English soldiers stand- 
ing in ranks, armed and prepared for battle. 

The chief saw at once that his plan had 
failed, and, as the English did not intend to 
fight unless the Indians began the battle, Pon- 
tiac and his men were allowed to leave the fort 
again in peace. And so Detroit was saved by 
a tender-hearted girl, and once again, as hap- 
pened many times during the terrible struggles 
between the Indians and whites, the Enelish 
had to thank an Indian maiden for help and 
warning in time of need. 

But this failure only made Pontiac and the 
other chiefs more furious than ever. As soon 
as possible the other forts were attacked. The 

IS* 



346 THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 

Wyandots burned Fort Sandusky, and butch- 
ered the soldiers ; the Chippeways murdered 
nearly all the inmates of Fort Mackinaw ; and 
by a clever trick Michilimackinac was also ta'- 
ken. The capture of Michilimackinac was on a 
holiday ; the Indians had approached the fort 
and were playing ball outside ; they had invited 
the soldiers out to see the game, and as they 
stood looking on, an Indian suddenly threw 
the ball near the gate of the fort. This was 
the sign agreed upon. The Indians all made 
a rush for the ball, and as they passed the 
squaws, who had been looking on, each man 
snatched his hatchet, which had been hidden 
under the women's blankets, and ran into the 
fort. The soldiers were not prepared, and in 
the surprise and confusion most of them were 
killed. 

And so the Indians went on, taking fort after 
fort, until there remained only three in the hands 
of the Enelish. One of these was Detroit, which 
Pontiac had surrounded for months with his own 
and other tribes ; but the English had a large 
store of provisions, and Pontiac, seeing no hope 



THE STORY OF PONTIAC. 347 

of success just then, went away with his men to 
attack places less strong. 

But he was still fiercely determined to drive 
the English from his western home, and for 
two years he gave them no peace — surprising 
them here and there, now at dead of night, 
and then in broad noonday, until the terrible 
war-cry of the Ottawas became a fear and dread 
to all the English in the west; but finally, worn 
out and discouraged with the useless struggle, 
one by one his warriors left him, and he fled to 
the Illinois, and lived with that tribe until his 
death. 

His was the most dreaded name in the west, 
and for years after, when France and England 
were no longer at war, and the Indians were for 
the most part peaceful, the English settlers in 
the lake region and on the banks of the Missis- 
sippi still remembered, with shuddering horror, 
the name of Pontiac, the last of the great Indian 
chiefs. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE REVOLUTOIN. 



Although America had been settled by dif- 
ferent nations — one place by the English, an- 
other by the Dutch, another by the French, 
another by the Swedes, and so on — it came to 
pass at last, as you have seen, that after a great 
deal of trouble and much fighting, England 
owned the greater part of it, and that the English 
language was spoken and English law obeyed 
from Maine to Florida. In fact, America was 
no longer looked upon as a country by itself, but 
as a province of England. And the people called 
themselves English, and were very proud to do 
so too ; for then, as now, England was one of 
the greatest countries in the world. 

This friendly feeling might have lasted for 
many years, if it had not been for the foolish and 
wrono- acts of the Enelish kingf and his advisers. 

The great war which England had been 



THE REVOLUTION. 349 

carrying on, a part of which was the fighting* 
against the French and Indians in America, had 
cost a great deal of money, and had left England 
very much in debt, and the king, George III., 
ordered the American colonies to be taxed in 
order to help pay the debt off. 

The Americans were quite willing to pay their 
share ; but they said that since America was a 
part of the English possessions, American states- 
men should be sent to the English Parliament 
to represent the colonies, and see that their in- 
terests were guarded; just as from all the differ- 
ent counties of Eno-land men were sent to Par- 
liament to see that taxes were not distributed 
unjustly among the people there. 

But George III. utterly refused to permit the 
colonists to send these representatives ; and in- 
stead passed some very unjust laws, and laid taxes 
on many articles that had not been taxed before. 

This aroused the indienation of the Ameri- 
cans, who refused to pay the taxes, and even 
attacked the English officers who tried to collect 
them. Meetings were held all over the country, 
and everywhere the same feeling was shown. 



3 so THE REVOLUTION. 

In Boston, rather than pay the tax on a ship- 
load of tea, the Bostonians, disguised as Indians, 
went on board the ship and threw the tea into 
the harbor. In New York an angry mob burned 
the effigy of the EngHsh Governor, and in every 
place women refused to buy English goods and 
said they would rather wear homespun than sub- 
mit to such injustice. 

This conduct only angered the king the 
more. He denied the right of America to re- 
sist his laws, and passed measures more irritat- 
ing still. 

The Americans began to wonder if he would 
force them into an open rebellion. The excite- 
ment grew stronger each day, and the king's 
authority was openly questioned. In large 
meetings the chief Americans discussed the 
vexed question, and decided that they had been 
right in resisting the king, and would continue 
to resist him until he repealed the unjust laws. 
Patrick Henry, a great orator of Virginia, made 
an address, in which he denounced George III. 
as a tyrant, and warned him against further 
exciting the indignation of the colonists. The 



THE REVOLUTION. 35 I 

king replied by calling the Americans traitors, 
and sending an armed force to frighten the 
rebels into submission. 

Many of the wisest Englishmen tried to per- 
suade King George to acknowledge the rights 
of the Americans in this matter ; among them 
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, who in an ad- 
dress to Parliament declared that he rejoiced 
that America had resisted. But they were un- 
successful, and things grew quickly worse. 

The presence of English troops in America 
was the signal for more determined opposition. 
Companies of militia were formed in all the 
towns and villages, and the English saw that 
the Americans were preparing to defend them- 
selves. In Boston, where the anger against 
the British soldiers was very great, and where 
some quarrels with them had already happened, 
the English general saw these preparations on 
every side. Among other things, he heard that 
the people had collected ammunition and provi- 
sions at Concord, a village some distance away, 
and he sent a party of soldiers to destroy these 
stores. As this party passed through Lexing- 



352 THE REVOLUTION. 

ton, another village, on the way to Concord, on 
the morning of April 19, 1775, they found a 
company of farmers assembled on the village 
green, to keep them from going further. They 
fired upon these men, and the Americans fired 
in return, though they were obliged to give 
way. Several of the Americans were killed and 
wounded, and this was the first blood shed in 
the Revolution. 

Two months later, on June 17th, as English 
troops were preparing to leave Boston, they 
found that breastworks had been made on 
Bunker Hill, behind which stood the Americans 
ready to resist them. The battle which fol- 
lowed showed the English that the Americans 
were much better soldiers than they had any 
idea of. They fought with the utmost skill 
and courage, and only withdrew when their 
powder and shot were quite exhausted; and 
although the English thus won the day, still the 
Americans were far from being disheartened. 

But they really did not wish a long and 
hard war with England, and would have been 
very glad if the king had shown any signs of 



THE REVOLUTION. 353 

relenting ; but he did not, and they determined 
to fight it out. An army of twenty thousand 
men was soon gathered around Boston ; George 
Washington, one of the heroes of the French 
and Indian wars, was chosen commander-in- 
chief of the army, and war really began. 

Several battles were fought ; sometimes the 
English were successful and sometimes the Am- 
ericans, and the end seemed as far off as ever. 

At last the Americans, seeing that King 
George would never come to terms, declared 
that they would no longer submit to English 
rule at all ; but would make America a free 
country and govern themselves. For although 
they had not meant to do this in the beginning 
of the trouble, they now saw it was the only 
thing that could be done. Representatives from 
all parts of the colonies met at Philadelphia, and 
there drew up a Declaration of Independence, 
in which they explained the reasons for their 
action, and then declared that the American 
colonies should be from that time an indepen- 
dent nation, forever free from English govern- 
ment. It was on July 4, i 'j'j^, that they adopted 



354 THE REVOLUTION. 

this declaration ; so that July 4th has been 
celebrated ever since as the nation's birthday. 
The declaration was read in all the towns amid 
ringing of bells and universal rejoicing, and 
thus the rebellion of the colonies aofainst Eng-- 
land became a revolution, or complete change 
of government. More troops were sent from 
England, and the colonies prepared for a long 
and desperate struggle. 

Volunteers came thronging from the hills of 
New England, the valley of the Hudson, the 
plantations of Virginia, and the rice-fields of the 
Carolinas ; the colonists had found out that there 
could only be strength in union. The war went 
on, and the Americans had the hardest part of 
the struggle still to come. They had but little 
money, and often suffered for food and clothing. 

While the English army was well fed and 
comfortably clothed, the Americans, in winter- 
quarters at Valley Forge, went hungry and 
ragged, leaving the prints of their bleeding feet 
on the snow, and encouraged only by the brave 
heart of Washington, who, amid the universal 
discouragement still kept on his way, calm, 



THE REVOLUTION. 355 



resolute, and incapable of despair. But better 
days dawned. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, 
devoted his large private fortune to the ex- 
penses of the army, and established a system 
of credit by which money could be raised for 
the soldiers ; and soon after there was a great 
victory at Saratoga, through which a large part 
of the English army under General Burgoyne 
had to surrender to the Americans. 

The battle of Saratoga showed the nations 
of Europe that America was likely to win the 
day ; and France, which was very hostile to 
England, agreed to help the colonies with men 
and money. In many ways the cause of the 
colonists gained new strength, and this was the 
turning-point of the war. From this time the 
Americans gained courage and hope as one 
victory followed another, and finally, on Octo- 
ber 19, 1 781, the English general, Lord Corn- 
wallis, surrendered his army to Washington at 
Yorktown, Va., and thus ended the war. 

The English troops were called home, and 
articles of peace between England and the 
United States of America were signed at Paris. 



:^ 



356 THE REVOLUTION. 

The United States chose George Washing- 
ton for the president of the new repubHc. He 
was inaugurated April 30, 1789, in New York, 
which was then the capital. 

The Revolution separated us forever from 
England, and made us, politically, an indepen- 
dent nation. But it could not break the ties of 
race, which will always make most Americans 
feel strongly bound to the mother country. 

To-day there is no nation on earth to which 
America turns with friendlier eyes than Eng- 
land, which gave to it its language, its laws, 
and its religion, and whose brave sons crossed 
the seas, and through much trouble and peril 
laid the foundations of this great new country ; 
and, in spite of all differences, the American 
and Englishman must ever feel that they are 
both descendants of the brave Norse races that 
crossed the Northern seas hundreds of years 
ago to choose for themselves a new home in 
England, and that no difference of time or place 
can change the mark of race that proves them 
brothers. 



fi - 1950 



















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